


Assumptions

by JWade



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 00:04:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8422960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: It's Sam's first day at Stanford and he nearly gets run over by some rich sophmore. Sam hates rich kids with all their entitlement and getting everything handed to them on a silver platter and refuses to see that Gabriel is different. Gabriel's  always had a weakness for nerds. Especially beautiful ones. And he wasn't one for giving up easily.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trying another human AU just for fun :)

It was Sam’s first day of classes at Stanford and he was still trying to learn his way around. His scholarship covered classes, books, dorms, and a full meal plan, but there were still a lot of other things he needed and/or wanted so he planned to get a job soon. He’d only been here for a few days and was still stinging over the fight he’d had with his family. His dad and brother were mechanics and they wanted him to go into the family business, but he had no interest in it and they took it as a betrayal. A lot of things were said on both sides and it ended with an ultimatum. If Sam left, then he wasn’t welcome back. Sam had just walked out without a word and hopped a bus to California. 

Sam had his backpack stuffed full and still had his arms full of the books that wouldn’t fit. With the way his schedule was and as far away as his dorm was, he wouldn’t have time to go back between classes. Not until he got a car or at least a bike or something. He knew a car was a long way away and resolved himself to find a cheap bicycle somewhere as soon as he could or this schedule was going to kill him. He was crossing the street when he suddenly heard a car horn and screeching tires as he jumped out of the way spinning to look. The cherry red Ferarri Spider convertible swung into the parking lot next to him and grabbed the first available spot, which happened to be a long way from the building, despite the fact that there were many spots closer. Jerk probably didn’t want to risk anyone dinging his precious car, Sam thought irritated. He hated people like that. People with money and power and all the opportunities they could ever want handed to them on a silver platter. 

Sam sneered as he bent down to pick up his books as the guy driving the car rushed over to him. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I got distracted for a minute and I didn’t see you,” he explained bending down to help Sam pick up his books. 

“I’m fine,” Sam said shortly, taking his books back from the guy none to gently and when he got a good look at him he couldn’t help but scoff. Typical rich kid. Blonde and beautiful with a lean muscular body. The fact that Sam found him attractive just annoyed him even more and he snapped, “Watch where you’re going next time,” and walked off.

The blonde man ran back to his car and grabbed his own bag, much smaller than Sam’s since he actually had a car so that he could go back to his no doubt luxurious apartment between classes and he rushed to catch up with Sam. “I’m Gabriel,” he said cheerfully, not letting Sam’s demeanor bother him. The guy did just have a near death experience after all. It would make anyone tetchy. 

“I’m late for class,” Sam responded speeding up, but Gabriel met his pace. 

“You’re new aren’t you?” Gabriel asked curiously. He hadn’t seen him around last year and he definitely would have noticed if he had. “Who do you have?” he continued not bothered at all by the fact that he was being ignored. Gabriel stood on his tiptoes to see the schedule on top of Sam’s books. Yep, he was a nerd. The schedule was even laminated and stuck in the top sheet of his binder. Gabriel had a bit of a weakness for nerds. Especially gorgeous nerds. “Mulroney huh? Don’t worry. He’s always ten minutes later than the rest of the class. Says he likes to make an entrance but he’s just disorganized and can’t keep track of time.”

Sam grit his teeth in annoyance. Typical. This guy didn’t even care that Sam didn’t want to talk to him. Just thought he was entitled to bother anyone he pleased just because he was rich and perfect and living off Daddy’s money. He still didn’t say a word to the hyper little man all the way in, but he got a cheerful, “See you later, Sam,” as he headed into class. It took him a second to realize that he must have gotten his name when he read his schedule and Sam slipped into the nearest chair at the back five minutes late only to find that Gabriel was right. The professor wasn’t even there yet. 

Gabriel turned around and walked to his own class with a frown on his face. Surely a simple accident that he immediately apologized for and didn’t even cause any harm wouldn’t have made him that mad. He would just have to try harder to make it up to him. It was this thinking that led to him rushing up to Sam as he got out of his class. “Hey Sam. I am sorry about earlier. How about I buy you a coffee to make up for it?” 

“I don’t have time,” Sam said gritting his teeth. 

“I can always drive you to your next class. It’s not far by car,” Gabriel offered. That would give them plenty of time for a cup of coffee on the way. 

Of course, the little twerp was rubbing it in. Sam didn’t need his charity. “No thanks,” he said snippily as they approached where Gabriel’s car was parked and Gabriel rushed over and changed out his books before catching back up with Sam who was already across the street. 

“Okay. I’ll just walk with you then,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “My next class is in the same building.”

That was the last straw for Sam. “Why won’t you just leave me alone?” he snarled as he turned to face him. 

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the response. “Just trying to be friendly and make up for nearly running you over. Why does it bother you so much?” he asked. 

“Because you’re not just trying to be friendly. You’re trying to either find something to make fun of me for or trying to make me a charity case and I don’t want or need either. I know people like you. Rich and perfect, living it up on Daddy’s money trying to make life miserable for the rest of us little ants that you squish under your feet and I’m not playing your little game so run along back to your fancy little car and perfect life and leave me alone,” Sam snapped storming off and this time Gabriel let him, too shocked to chase after him again. 

After standing there blinking at the tall man’s back for a moment he turned and headed back to his car mumbling under his breath about stupid people making assumptions about who he was just because he was rich, like that automatically made everything great and made him a pompous prick. Stupid tall beautiful idiot was the pompous prick, judging him without knowing the first thing about him. He was annoyed with himself that he still couldn’t help but be attracted to the jerk. 

He got to his next class early and stood outside the building, leaning against the wall as he waited for Sam to get there. When Sam looked up and saw him he grimaced and tried to rush past. “You’re wrong about me you know, but if you won’t even bother to get to know me before judging me, that’s on you,” he said as he walked away down a different hallway, taking the long route to his class, not wanting to walk with Sam. 

Sam just rolled his eyes. They always said they were different but he’d seen it a hundred times and they never were. They were just better at hiding it. Thankfully, that was the last time their scheduled overlapped that day and he didn’t see Gabriel at all the next day. Wednesday morning came and Gabriel greeted Sam cheerfully as they met up walking into the building and he tried to make small talk, but Sam wasn’t saying a word. “Gabriel!” They heard a girl shriek and Gabriel turned just in time to get hit with a brunette missile. 

“Lindy! How are you? I haven’t heard from you in a few weeks,” Gabriel said cheerfully. 

Sam started to walk off, slowed down by the crowds in the hall. Apparently, Wednesday morning classes were more widely attended than Monday morning classes and he heard her announce proudly, “I got my scholarship back! Thanks again for the loan and I’ll start paying you back as soon as I can.”

“No rush doll. Whenever is good. But congratulations. We should celebrate! Bellagio’s tonight?” 

“Matt too?” she asked hopefully. 

“Absolutely. The more the merrier,” he turned to invite Sam only to see him slipping into his classroom down the hall. Oh well. He absentmindedly wondered how much Sam heard and realized that it wouldn’t help him against Sam’s assumption that he was a charity case, but oh well. So he helped his friends when they were in trouble. He refused to be ashamed of that.


	2. Chapter 2

When Gabriel ran into Sam before their next class, he again greeted him cheerfully and tried to make small talk. Sam had something to hold over him now though and couldn’t resist a nasty, “Congrats on buying a date tonight.” He refused to admit that he just might be a little jealous. 

Gabriel laughed. “Oh yeah. Nice date. Me, her, and her boyfriend.” Sam must not have heard that part, having already been too far away. “And as for me ‘buying’ anything, her dad died last year in a mugging gone wrong and she missed a lot of school, wanting to be there for the trial and her grades dropped just enough for her to lose her scholarship. She was upset that she was going to have to leave school so I paid for the next semester of school for her. She’s my friend and I wanted to help. I have never nor would ever expect anything in return,” Gabriel said testily. 

“Oh and I’m sure you’d do the same for anyone even if they weren’t a beautiful girl,” Sam scoffed rolling his eyes. 

Gabriel laughed again. This time a little louder. It was obvious what Sam thought and he had an easy comeback for that one too. “That might be a valid theory if I weren’t gay, dumbass,” he said as he walked off before Sam could respond to that little rejoinder. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of it. He was relatively open about the fact, and there wasn’t much prejudice here, but who knew where Sam came from or how he would take it. He knew that kneejerk reactions were always the worst so walking away and avoiding them was the best way to do it. That way when he saw him again he would have processed and considered his response a little more carefully. 

Sam fumed as he headed towards his next class. Now everything made sense. Why Gabriel was being so nice to him. Rich kids always liked having flings from the other side of the tracks. Throw a little money and attention at some poor nerdy person and have them fawning all over them, but it never lasted. As soon they started wanting more they got dropped like a bad habit. Rich people never wanted anything real with people like him and the fact that he was a guy made it even worse. Sam had no idea how Gabriel had pegged him as gay. Even his own family didn’t know, but he would be damned if he let himself be used like that. He wasn’t going to be the easy prey that Gabriel obviously thought he would be. 

He didn’t run into Gabriel again until Saturday night where he had just started his first night bartending at the local pub. Gabriel came in with a group of four other people and grinned when he saw Sam behind the bar. His friends hit the pool table, but Gabriel just stood there and watched Sam for a few minutes before he headed over to get their drinks. He handed over his platinum card and opened a tab before ordering two rum and cokes, a margarita, a beer and a coke. Sam, not wanting to get in trouble his first day on the job and especially not for Gabriel’s sake, handed them over with a smile and even offered Gabriel a tray to carry them all. He couldn’t help but watch as he took them over to the pool tables and raised an eyebrow when he realized that the plain coke was for Gabriel. 

It wasn’t long after they came in that the rush started and Sam could barely keep up, even with the other two bartenders. Gabriel had come up for refills a few times and a few hours later all his friends were falling over drunk. They could barely even hit the balls and Gabriel just laughed as he beat them handily. Sam wondered if they were going to close down the place but then one of Gabriel’s friends started hitting on the waitress rather obnoxiously and Sam just snorted. Typical. Gabriel surprised him though when he grabbed the guy by the back of the shirt and hauled him away, shuffling all his friends out the door, which seemed to be no mean feat because none of them seemed to want to go. Just when Sam was wondering if Gabriel was going to come back and close out his tab or not he wandered back in. “Sorry about that. Jesse can get a little belligerent when he drinks too much. Would you pass along my apologies to the waitress, Miranda I think her name was, too?” Gabriel said as Sam closed out his tab. 

“Sure,” Sam told him wondering why he was bothering. If it was just some ploy to make Sam think better of him. He almost declined the twenty dollar tip that Gabriel left him, but realized that this was his job and part of it was tips. If Gabriel wanted to tip well that wasn’t exactly charity. If he had tried to tip a hundred dollars or something, Sam would have said something, but twenty wasn’t an unreasonable tip. He’d already gotten a couple tips that big tonight anyway so he let it go.

Sam did as Gabriel asked and passed his apology on to Miranda but she just waved it off. “Psh. Gabriel’s a sweetheart. If I was worried about being groped by drunk idiots I wouldn’t work at a bar. He’s always good about keeping his buddies in line though. And he’s a great tipper,” she told him. 

“So he did tip you already?” Sam asked. They didn’t technically have to share tips with the waitresses since they were supposed to be tipped separately, but if there was food on the tab, Sam had already decided that he would ask and split any tips if they didn’t already get one. 

“Oh sure. He’s one you never have to worry about,” she told him. She appreciated his attitude on tips and he had already split two with her that night from people that didn’t leave them. 

Sam was starting to have the smallest doubts about his assumptions about Gabriel’s character. So he was nice to the ‘help’. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. It definitely didn’t change the fact that he had no intention of being one of the guy’s conquests and if he let himself believe that Gabriel really was a good guy then it was a slippery slope. No. He was going to stay the course. He didn’t want anything to do with Gabriel. 

Gabriel had noticed Sam looking through a bicycle magazine during slow times and figured that he was trying to save up to get one and make getting to and from classes easier. Gabriel knew it was a bit of a walk from the dorms and some of the classes were spread all over campus. The next morning Gabriel went out and bought a nice racing bike. He wanted to help Sam but he knew that he would never accept charity so he intentionally dinged the bike up a bit and bent the handlebars, not enough that it couldn’t be used, but enough that it would be conceivable that someone would want to throw it away. The next morning he hung a sign on it that said ‘free bike’ and put it over next to the garbage in front of Sam’s building around the time he knew Sam would be leaving for classes. He hid around the corner to make sure Sam got it instead of someone else, but his timing was good. 

It was only five minutes before Sam came outside and noticed the bike. He inspected it for a minute before grinning and getting on. What was his luck that someone was throwing away a working bike and right outside his building at that. Maybe things were finally turning around for him. He had enough time now to stop and get a bike lock on the way. He had been planning to get a new backpack first since his was fraying a bit, still being the same one he used in high school, but he could hardly leave his bike around without a lock after he was lucky enough to get one. He could get a new backpack next weekend. Not even Gabriel could kill his mood this morning and he didn’t snap at the little man nearly as much as usual, just endured his cheerful chatter as Gabriel walked him to his class.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam’s good mood didn’t last though. By Wednesday he was back to sniping at Gabriel and when Gabriel asked if he wanted to grab some lunch after their second class, Sam said bluntly, “I’m not interested.”

Gabriel sighed. He should have known the revelation that he was gay would be taken the wrong way. “Look, Sam. I’m not trying to hit on you or anything. You’re not gay or not interested, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to be your friend.”

“Why?” Sam asked skeptically. 

“You’re interesting and nice…well to other people that you aren’t judging unfairly at least,” Gabriel shrugged. 

“I think you just want to try to prove to me that I’m wrong about you and once you have you’ll lose interest,” Sam said pointedly. 

“No. Well the first part maybe. I don’t know. But I don’t ‘lose interest’ in friends Sam,” Gabriel told him. 

“You really think that’s actually a friendship?” Sam scoffed. “Just go away, Gabriel. I’m not interested in being ‘friends’ either,” he snapped as he escaped into his class. 

Gabriel just huffed and headed to his own. He couldn’t see any other way to get close to Sam without crossing a line into outright harassment so he would do as he asked and hopefully Sam would warm up to him in time. In the meantime he would leave him alone. He had no intention of avoiding his favorite pub though. Sam would just have to deal with him there. 

The next Friday evening, a week and a half since he’d last talked to Sam beyond in his capacity as a bartender, Gabriel walked into the pub looking a little worse for wear. He handed over his card and just said, “Screwdriver. Light on the OJ.” Sam handed it over and Gabriel downed the whole thing in one go. “Hit me again.” Sam refilled it, marveling at Gabriel’s ability to drink that whole large glass so quickly. This time he took the now full drink and sat in the back booth by himself sipping at it. Sam watched him curiously for a minute, wondering what was going on. 

By the time Gabriel had come up for his fifth refill, Sam was actually worried. Other than ordering he hadn’t said a word to anyone and everyone seemed content to avoid him. Sam found himself drawn to the sight whenever he had a free moment and Miranda noticed. “He does that once a month or so. Not sure what sets it off, but he’ll come in here, brood while getting completely smashed then take a cab home. You’ll get used to it. Throw some chips on his tab. I’m gonna try and get him to eat something.”

“I’ll take them over. I’m due for my ten anyway,” Sam offered. 

“Careful. He bites when he’s like this,” Miranda warned. 

Sam knew she meant figuratively. At least he hoped she meant figuratively. “You should eat something,” Sam said gently as he put the chips on the table. 

“I’m fine, Sam,” Gabriel snapped even as he grabbed one and started munching on it absentmindedly. 

“Everything okay?” he couldn’t help but ask. 

“Why? I thought you had ‘no interest in being my friend’,” Gabriel said harshly. 

“That’s not what this is about, is it?” Sam asked worriedly. 

“No, Sam. I’m not so fragile that some random guy thinking I’m a waste of space bothers me that much. My father though…never mind. Just go away, Sam. I’m not in the mood for your attitude today. I will take another drink though.”

Sam went and got him one and even brought it back over to him since he was still technically on his break and not needed behind the bar. He wasn’t sure what else to say, so he left him to it, glad to see that he was actually eating the chips to soak up some of that alcohol in system before he ended up with alcohol poisoning. Four more drinks later, and Gabriel alone had polished off most of the bottle of vodka before pulling out his phone. Sam saw the cab pull up and Gabriel staggered out and got in so at least he wasn’t going to try and drive. 

Once he was gone, Sam turned to Miranda now that it was slowing up. They just had the late night crowd now, it being after midnight already. “You know Gabriel pretty well?” he asked. 

“I don’t know about well. Not personally anyway. But I know he’s a good guy. Last year my kid got sick and I couldn’t afford the medicine for him. I found out later that Gabriel had overheard my conversation with the pharmacist and he came in here every night for two weeks leaving even bigger tips than usual so I could get it.”

“Why not just give you the money?” Sam asked confused, trying to figure the guy out. 

“I asked him that once I figured out what he was doing. He said he didn’t want me to be embarrassed about it. I also found out later that he pulled some strings and got the best doctor in the state there to take care of him.”

“But your son…he’s okay now?” Sam asked. 

“He’s in remission, thankfully.”

Sam had a lot to think about. Maybe he really had been wrong about Gabriel. He would have to consider taking it easy on him. Maybe even getting to know him a little. That was easier said than done given that Gabriel seemed to be avoiding him now. It had been almost two weeks since Gabriel had sought him out but now he was nowhere to be seen. Well not close enough to actually talk to anyway. He had caught a glimpse of his blonde head darting around corners, but even when he came to the pub, he always sent one of his friends to the bar now. This went on for two weeks before something happened that made him more determined to corner Gabriel and talk to him. 

He had been riding down the street on his way to work when he caught sight of something going on in the park. Before he could get a good look at it though a familiar red convertible screeched to stop at the curb and Gabriel jumped out, not even bothering to open the door as he grabbed one of the guys and pulled him back. The guy took a swing at Gabriel, but Gabriel ducked and buried a fist in the guys gut. When he doubled over, Gabriel grabbed one of the other guys and the situation repeated itself, but this time Gabriel gave a right cross to the guy’s jaw, laying him out before he grabbed the third and just shoved him to the ground. 

Sam was there by that point and could see the bloody shaking kid on the ground. Sam knew him from a couple of his classes, but before he could do much all three of the guys had their attention on Gabriel, standing between them and the kid. Gabriel seemed ready for a fight, but was making no move to start one and Sam jumped in next to Gabriel making the bullies think twice so they turned and left after tossing a few more threats. Gabriel just ignored Sam and turned around to help the other guy up. “C’mere,” he said leading him over to his car pulling his keys out and pressing a button to open the trunk. He pulled out a first aid kit and crunched up the ice pack and put it on his eye. “What’s your name?” he asked. 

“Ron,” the guy said and Sam remembered now. He always sat at the back and never talked to anyone. 

“Well, Ron. It looks like that shoulder is dislocated and you should probably have the rest of it checked out to. Hop in and I’ll run you to the clinic,” he offered. 

Ron looked at Gabriel’s pristine tan leather seats and then down at himself all bloody and covered in dirt and grass and hesitated. Gabriel saw that and rolled his eyes. “Oh please. The car can always be cleaned. Just get in.”

“Gabriel,” Sam said trying to start a conversation. 

“It’s okay, Sam. I got it. You don’t want to be late for work,” Gabriel said as he got in the car and drove off without even looking at him. 

Sam sighed, but Gabriel was right. He didn’t want to be late so he just headed to work. Gabriel usually came in on Saturday nights, but this time he was later than usual. It was almost nine o’clock before he came in with some friends and this time Ron was with them, arm in a sling and limping a bit but he looked happy. When one of Gabriel’s friends, Vicki came up to open a tab for him, Sam decided enough was enough. Technically he wasn’t supposed to be opening a tab for Gabriel’s card without Gabriel’s signature but no one really cared. Sam decided that this time, he did though. “Sorry Vicki, but they are starting to come down on us about the rules. I really need him up here to open the tab,” he said apologetically. She just shrugged and went back over to the table and talked to Gabriel for a minute who rolled his eyes and came up to the bar. 

“I’m not buying that load of crap for a second. No one cares who uses my card. What do you want, Sam?” 

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Sam accused. 

“You told me to leave you alone,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind,” Sam told him. 

“Why? Because you feel sorry for me after you found out my life was as perfect as you thought? No thanks,” Gabriel said handing over his card, signaling the end of the conversation. 

“No, because I realized that I was wrong about you and I want a chance to apologize and maybe even get to know the real you,” Sam told him. 

Gabriel looked over at him searchingly as he signed to open the tab. “We’ll see,” Gabriel said before ordering the drinks and heading back over to the pool tables.


	4. Chapter 4

Monday morning found a return to the routine from the first of the year as Gabriel met Sam outside the building with a cheerful greeting. Sam grinned at him as they walked to class making small talk. After class, Sam was the one waiting for Gabriel this time. He wasn’t sure where Gabriel’s class was, but he waited in the main entrance of the building. Gabriel offered to drive him to their next class and stop for coffee on the way. “I don’t know. I’d still have to come back for my bike later,” Sam hesitated. 

“Don’t worry about it. I got a bike rack,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam furrowed his brow in confusion. He couldn’t remember there being a bike rack on Gabriel’s car, but he just shrugged and grabbed his bike and followed Gabriel. “You got a new car?” he asked incredulously unable to keep his assumptions at bay by thinking that someone had bled on his precious car so now he needed a new one. 

“Nah. This is just a rental. Mine is being reupholstered. Turns out blood doesn’t come out of leather very well,” Gabriel said unconcerned. 

“That must be costing a lot.”

“Doesn’t matter. Stuff can be replaced. People can’t. For all I knew he had a head injury or internal bleeding and he could have died. Even if that wasn’t the case I’m not gonna leave someone injured to make their own way to a doctor.”

“That’s nice of you,” Sam admitted. 

Gabriel snorted a laugh. “No. That’s HUMAN of me, but at least I know where I’m starting from in your esteem.”

“I didn’t mean…”

“Yes you did. But I don’t care. As long as you’re willing to admit you’re wrong and see for yourself now.” They rolled into Starbucks and Sam looked nervously at it. Coffee here was expensive. He should have known this was where they were going. Gabriel noticed the look and rolled his eyes. “I’m buying.” 

“I don’t need…” 

“My charity, yes I know, but it’s not about charity. When have you ever seen me make anyone pay for their own drinks? The way I see it why should people waste their hard-earned money when I have plenty of money sitting around that I got for just being born. It’s not like I earned it the way other people have to, so if I can make things easier on them I will. If it really bothers you, we can call this one a sorry for almost running you over drink and from now on you can buy your own.”

Sam had almost forgotten how they first met and the fact that Gabriel had wanted to buy him a coffee then to apologize so he just decided to accept it this time. He could decide about more later. They went in and got their drinks and sat down to drink them and Sam was surprised that he actually had a good time. Gabriel was smart and funny and he almost didn’t notice when it was time to head to class. 

Luckily, Gabriel was paying attention so they made it to class on time and, once again, Gabriel offered lunch after class and this time, Sam accepted and Gabriel headed off to his own class with a grin. After class as they walked back to the car, Sam asked, “Have you ever been to McDonalds?” He was warming up to the idea of letting Gabriel pay, but for now he wanted to pay for his own stuff. 

“Obviously,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “It’s fast, easy, and the food is pretty good, so yeah. I happen to like McDonalds.”

“Okay, so that sound good for lunch?” Sam asked. 

“Sure thing,” Gabriel agreed. It seemed that Sam wanted to pay for his own food still so Gabriel would let him. He had no intention of forcing anything on anyone. He’d said his piece on the matter and it was up to Sam now. “Incidentally, you should have seen the look on my father’s face the first time he saw a charge for McDonalds on my credit card statement. I swear I thought he was gonna have a coronary right there,” he laughed. 

Sam laughed along with him. He got the idea from Gabriel’s solo visit that him and his father didn’t get along very well and at least now the subject was opened up. “So your father isn’t as open-minded as you I take it.”

Gabriel snorted a laugh. “That’s an understatement and a half.” 

When Gabriel didn’t say anything more on the matter, Sam tried to prod a little more. “You don’t get along?” he asked. 

“Why don’t we save digging up my demons for the second date huh?” he joked, before he realized what he said and hastily backtracked. “I didn’t mean this was a date or anything. It was just a joke.”

“It’s okay, Gabe. I got that,” Sam said with a chuckle, not nearly as surprised as he would have liked to be by the fact that he wouldn’t have minded if it was a date. 

Conversation was kept light while they ate and Gabriel dropped Sam off at his next class before heading to his own. Gabriel had been right about one thing. Sam was definitely worth knowing. He had been tempted to suggest hanging out tonight after classes too, but didn’t want to push things too far too fast. He and Sam had gotten along well, sure, but they had basically spent all day together outside of classes. He still didn’t even know if Sam was gay and might be interested in more or if this was just a friends thing. He would take it either way of course. He had plenty of friends he was attracted to already and it wasn’t really a big deal. He couldn’t help but find himself hoping for more this time though, but had no idea how to bring it up without letting on that he wanted more and risking Sam running off. He decided to just play it by ear. Sam knew he was gay and if he was open to more then he would surely see the signs.

They had the same kind of day on Wednesday. Sam let Gabriel buy him coffee, but insisted on buying his own lunch, but rather than go to McDonalds again, Gabriel led them to a little hole in the wall place with cheap prices and great food. Gabriel once again resisted the urge to ask him to hangout after classes and he resigned himself to seeing Sam again on Saturday night at the pub. Gabriel was back to opening his own tab and grabbing the drinks, chatting with Sam in the process when he wasn’t too busy. As he was closing out his tab he couldn’t resist asking, “So what are your plans tomorrow?” 

“I have a paper due Monday I was gonna finish up. Why?” Sam asked. 

“Well maybe if you finish up early we can do a pizza and movie night at my place?” Gabriel suggested, trying to keep it casual and glad that Sam had a good excuse to say no if he wanted to. 

“Yeah. That sounds cool. I should be done by around four or so,” Sam told him. He would have to rush to be done by then, but he wanted to hang out with Gabriel some more so it was worth it. 

“Okay cool. You want me to pick you up?” he asked trying not to grin like a loon. 

“Nah. I’ll bike over. No need to go out of your way,” Sam told him. 

“Okay. Apartment 36,” Gabriel told him. He had mentioned the building he lived in already so Sam just needed the apartment number. 

“Okay cool. See you then.” 

It wasn’t until Sam got back to his dorm that night that he realized he didn’t even know if it was just the two of them or if more people would be there. He kinda hoped it would be the two of them, but he wouldn’t be averse to hanging out with Gabriel’s friends either. He woke up early the next morning and plugged away on his paper, forcing himself to concentrate so he could get it done earlier. It didn’t work as well as he’d hoped and it was closer to five before he finished with it. He’d texted Gabriel to let him know he’d be a little later and once he was done he hopped on his bike and headed over.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam took a deep breath before knocking on the door and it swung open almost immediately. “Sam!” Gabriel said cheerfully. “Welcome to casa de Gabriel,” he said backing up and swinging his arm around dramatically. 

Sam grinned as he stepped in. “Yep. Pretty much what I expected,” he said seeing the state of the art entertainment system complete with big screen tv and surround sound and what looked like the best furniture out there. It was a typical rich college kid’s apartment, but Sam had already realized that Gabriel wasn’t they typical rich college kid and his grin took the sting out of the words. 

“I already ordered the pizza. It should be here pretty soon. As the guest, you get to pick the first movie,” he said pointing Sam towards the full shelves as he asked, “Beer, soda, or hard stuff?” 

“Beer with the pizza. Maybe we can break out the hard stuff later,” Sam said as he went over and saw a large selection of sci-fi and fantasy movies with a smattering of other genres. Sam decided to go with something that couldn’t lose…and could also be considered a cheat because you couldn’t watch the first Star Wars without watching the other two. No sooner than he popped the movie in there was another knock on the door and Gabriel paid for the pizza and brought it over. Sam was glad to find that Gabriel wasn’t the type of person that preferred silence during movies as they spent most of the movie joking and quoting dialogue at each other and arguing about the semantics of it. 

About halfway through the second movie, Sam brought the subject away from Star Wars. “How did your family react when you told them you were gay?” he asked carefully. 

Gabriel snorted derisively. “My father went and got drunk and my brothers beat me to a pulp before dumping me on the ground in front of the ER.” He said as he got up and walked over to the liquor cabinet. If they were going to be talking about this, he needed a drink. 

Sam gasped. “Were you okay?” he asked, horrified. 

“Two broken ribs, a concussion, a broken nose, fractured jaw, and a whole host of little stuff. I healed up fine and they’ve all barely spoken to me since. Brown, white, or another beer?” he asked as he poured himself a big glass of vodka adding a little soda to it. 

“White,” Sam said before asking “How old were you?” 

“Fifteen,” Gabriel told him, pouring another for Sam, but giving him a more even mix of vodka and soda and coming back to sit down. 

“And they didn’t get in any trouble?” Sam asked before realizing that they were rich. Of course they didn’t get in trouble. 

“The story was that I got jumped in the park and it was too dark to see their faces. They pointed out that if I didn’t go along with it then I would lose my trust fund when I got taken away. I agreed on the condition that none of them ever lay a hand on me again or I would ruin them. The money was never that important to me, but what was done was done. There was no point losing it over that as long as I didn’t have to worry about I happening again.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Sam said. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Gabriel.”

Gabriel just shrugged. “It’s in the past. I don’t have to deal with them anymore beyond the monthly ‘I’m disappointed in you, there’s still time to change your major and become a proper member of society’ and so on phone calls from my father and before long…once it is too late to change my major…They’ll be out of my life for good, so I’m not really worried about it.”

“My family cut me off too,” Sam told him. “They are mechanics, and the shop has been in the family for five generations. I was supposed to join my dad and brother, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to go to college and do something more with my life. My brother dropped out of school when he was sixteen to go to work at the shop, and when I didn’t they got pissed. In return I had to work nights and weekends to ‘do my share of the work’. I never told them I applied to colleges and when I got the full ride here there was no way I was going to say no. I told them about a week before classes started and we had a big fight and they told me if I left to never come back. I haven’t spoken to either of them since.”

“That sucks, Sammy. I’m sorry. No one should ever be punished for achieving something great,” Gabriel told him. 

“Thanks, Gabriel,” Sam said with a smile.

“So you just have the one brother?” Gabriel asked. Now that they were talking about it, Gabriel wanted to know more. 

“Yeah, Dean. He’s four years older than me and Dad’s perfect son. I’ve never really fit in with them.”

“I know what you mean. I have three older brothers and I’ve always been the odd one out too,” Gabriel told him. 

“What do they do?” Sam asked curiously. 

“My oldest brother, Michael, is VP of something or other at my dad’s company, poised to take over when he retires. Dad owns some fortune 500 computer software company along with half of New York. He’s practically god and Michael is his perfect little heir. Jumping whenever Daddy says jump. My second oldest brother Luke is a lawyer. He’s got a forked tongue that can make you believe whatever he wants you to and he uses it to get mobsters and drug dealers and gun runners off scot free making a mint doing it. Then there’s Ralph. Luke is cold and cruel, mostly using his words as weapons, but Ralph is just plain violent. He got an engineering degree and bought some big tech company. They work on a lot of things, but mostly weapons. They sell them to the military on the books but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a good number of side deals going too if you know what I mean. I want nothing to do with any of them,” Gabriel said downing the rest of his drink and going for another. “Refill?” he asked Sam. 

Sam had only drank about half of his and he was feeling pretty buzzed already. “Nah. I’m good. They sound horrible.”

“They are. I just wish I could have seen my dad’s face when he found out I was a theatre major,” Gabriel laughed derisively. “I bet he shit himself.”

Sam laughed along with him. “Yeah I can imagine.”

“He made it perfectly clear that if I continue with this ‘tomfoolery’ I get nothing more from him after graduation. Like I care. My trust fund has been set up since I was a baby and they can’t touch it as long as I’m in college and graduate. Once I graduate I get full access and if I can’t live the rest of my life on twenty million dollars then I deserve to go broke, and that’s even if I bomb out as an actor.”

“Twenty million dollars?” Sam asked wide-eyed. 

“Yep. I get access to two million as long as I’m in college and the rest when I graduate. Nothing ever said what I had to graduate in. As long as I get a four year degree of some sort I’m set. Of course to them, used to living off billions of dollars it’s just chump change, but I’m good with it.”

“I can’t even imagine two million, much less twenty,” Sam said in awe. 

“Now you see why I don’t really care about buying drinks for everyone or paying for meals and stuff,” 

“Or paying for a kid’s medicine,” Sam cut in. 

Gabriel blushed and looked down rubbing the back of his neck. “Miranda told you huh?” 

“Yeah. She did. Why did you pretend you didn’t know her that night?” 

“I didn’t want her to be guilty by association with me. You seemed pretty set on hating me and I didn’t want to make things harder on either of you while you were working there.” 

“Still, I would think knowing there’s an end would make you try to save more,” Sam told him, ignoring what was probably a correct assumption and not wanting to admit it. 

“Maybe I will eventually, but we’re in college. Everyone is struggling with money. If I can use some of mine to make it easier on others, then great and as far as the kid goes…well if I can’t do something good with the money then what the hell’s the use in having it.”

Sam blamed the alcohol for what he did next. He leaned forward and kissed Gabriel. Gabriel’s hand immediately went to Sam’s cheek as he leaned into it and snaked out his tongue to deepen the kiss giving a contented hum when Sam opened for him. It ended as suddenly as it began a moment later though as Sam jumped back like he’d been burned. “Oh god…I…I’m sorry…I…I should…I should go,” he scrambled up off the couch and staggered over to where he left his jacket on the back of the chair. 

Gabriel jumped up after him. “Sam,” he called, but Sam didn’t pause in his frantic movements as he tried to put his jacket on, stumbling in the process. “Sam!” Gabriel said more firmly as he grabbed the younger man’s arms. “If you want to go, okay, but let me call you a cab. You don’t need to be riding like this. You can wait for it downstairs if it makes you more comfortable.”

“I…but…my bike,” Sam said stepping back away from Gabriel. 

“I’ll drop it at your building in the morning and make sure it’s locked up for you,” Gabriel offered. 

“O-okay,” Sam said reaching for the door. “I need to go,” he said again. 

“Okay. I’ll call a cab for you. Stay in the lobby until it gets here, okay?” 

Sam just nodded and fled out the door and Gabriel ran a hand through his hair as he sighed and reached for the phone. His first call was downstairs to the doorman asking him to make sure Sam didn’t leave until the cab got there before he called for a cab and then collapsed back on the couch rubbing his head trying to clear the alcohol induced haze and figure out what the hell just happened.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam sat down in the lobby, head in his hands. He couldn’t believe he’d just done that. He’d just kissed Gabriel. A guy. I mean, sure, he knew he was gay in theory, but he had never done anything about it. He could barely even admit it to himself, much less anyone else and then he goes and kisses a guy. What the hell was he thinking? He never should have taken that drink. He’d never drank before beyond the occasional beer. He should have known better. He started to leave a couple times but the doorman reminded him that he was waiting for a cab. Gabriel must have called him and told him. God…he’d kissed Gabriel!

 

Gabriel was upstairs cursing himself just as much as Sam was. He could have handled that better. He shouldn’t have deepened that kiss. Not until he figured out if Sam actually wanted it. He should have said something after. Something to let Sam know that it wasn’t unwelcome or at least that he didn’t mind it. Something to calm him down, or at least try to. He never should have brought out the hard stuff. He knew Sam wasn’t much of a drinker. He just hadn’t expected one drink to hit him so hard. Gabriel’s two…well almost four when considering the alcohol to coke ratio, just had him on the high side of buzzed, maybe a little bit drunk, but Sam was pretty smashed and Gabriel had made his drink weak. He’d made so many mistakes tonight and now Sam would probably never come here again. Hell he’d be lucky if Sam ever spoke to him again. 

 

Gabriel set his alarm for early and when he woke up the next morning he dropped Sam’s bike off, as promised, a good hour before he was set to leave for the day, making sure the lock was good and tight. Luckily he had thought to have the doorman get the spare key from Sam before the cab got there. He would wait for him outside before their class to give it back to him when he had an easy excuse to escape. He wanted to talk to Sam but he wasn’t sure if he should give him some space first. As he leaned against the side of the building waiting for Sam, he chewed his lip nervously. He was early, but he had been too wound up to do anything else so it was a longer wait than usual. He saw Sam ride up and lock his bike before he looked at him. He could see the indecision on Sam’s face so he took the bull by the horns. He walked over to Sam and handed him the key. “Here’s your key. I..I’ll see you later,” he said sadly. 

“Gabriel, wait,” Sam said before he got far and Gabriel stopped and turned to look at him. “I…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…done that,” Sam chose his words carefully mindful of the other people around, not that any of them were paying the slightest bit of attention. 

Gabriel sighed. “C’mere,” he said walking over out of the way of traffic where he wouldn’t be overheard. “Look, Sam. I like you. A lot. I would like to see if there can be more between us, but only if you want to. Either way, I still want to be your friend though.”

“I…I don’t…” Sam trailed off, not sure what to say to that. 

“I get it. You need some space and that’s fine. I’ll back off. I’ll be waiting out here on Monday and Wednesday mornings, but if you’re not ready to talk to me yet, feel free to just ignore me. I won’t hold it against you and when and if you do want to talk to me again, as friends or something more, it doesn’t have to be weird, okay?” Gabriel said. 

“O-okay,” Sam said with a nervous half-smile and then turned and headed into the building. Gabriel waited a few minutes before following, running a hand through his hair and hoping that he had handled that right. 

True to his word he was waiting outside on Wednesday morning, and Sam just walked right by like he wasn’t there. He knew that he had told Sam he wouldn’t hold it against him, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting a little. Gabriel closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, taking a deep breath before going in himself. Saturday when he and his friends went to the pub, he didn’t approach the bar. He sent others to open the tab and fetch the drinks. No need to make this harder on Sam than it already was. Monday morning was a repeat of last week, but Wednesday Sam hesitated before going in and turned and walked over to Gabriel. “Can we…talk later? Maybe…lunch?” Sam asked tentatively. 

“Sure thing. Meet me after next class?” Gabriel said making sure to keep his tone light. Sam again gave him a nervous half-smile before turning and walking into the building. Gabriel gave his own smile before following him. It was something at least. Sam was silent all the way to the restaurant. Gabriel had decided on McDonalds again. Sam seemed comfortable here and it was the cheapest he could get if Sam was paying for his own food.

It wasn’t until they sat down with their food that Sam said anything. He looked around nervously before leaning forward and whispering, “I don’t know…”

“Hang on,” Gabriel said getting up and motioning Sam to follow him. They went to a table in the deserted back corner where they couldn’t be overheard and Sam nodded gratefully before starting again. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing here, Gabriel. I know I’m…I’m gay,” Sam said quietly. “But I’ve never even said it out loud before. I’ve never…never told anyone and definitely never…never even kissed a guy before. I just…I don’t know…” Sam trailed off, biting his lip. 

“Sam, this is whatever you want. You need more time, take it. You wanna try it, we can take it slow. Snail pace if that’s what you want,” Gabriel told him. 

“I…I think I do want that…I mean…if you’re sure…”

“I’m positive, Sam. I meant what I said before. I really like you and I think we could be good together. We can take this as slow as you want,” he said reaching his hand across the table to put on Sam’s only for Sam to jerk his hand away like it was on fire and look around frantically. “Okay. I get it. We can keep it secret for a while too. Give you a chance to wrap your head around it. You should know though, I don’t know how it was back in Kansas, but people here are really open-minded. They don’t care all that much.” Gabriel didn’t want to keep it secret forever. It would get too complicated and he didn’t really like lying to his friends, but he could give Sam some time. 

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Sam said relieved. 

Sam was rewarded with a grin. “Now that’s settled…Can I see you tonight?” he asked hopefully. It had to be tonight or not until Sunday since Sam worked Thursday through Saturday. 

“You mean like…a date?” Sam asked nervously. 

“Yeah. We can go out somewhere, but keep things casual so no one knows we’re together or we can do movie and pizza at my place again so we can relax a little more,” Gabriel suggested. 

“I…yeah…your place sounds good,” Sam said blushing a bit. He knew how it sounded, but Gabriel had said they would take it slow. One thing was for sure though. Sam had no intention of drinking this time. He didn’t want to risk his first time being like that. 

“I can pick you up after your last class?” Gabriel suggested. 

Sam nodded and they slipped into easy small talk while they finished eating. Gabriel drove Sam to his next class and when they got there, Sam looked around for a minute to make sure no one was looking, even if they could see in with the tinted windows and he leaned over and kissed Gabriel’s cheek quickly before jumping out of the car. Once the door closed, Gabriel grinned and gave a little chuckle. He was very glad he had gone with the dark tint on the windows when he got the rental. He was sure Sam wouldn’t have done that otherwise. He headed off to his own afternoon classes with a new spring in his step.


	7. Chapter 7

After Gabriel picked Sam up, they headed back to his place and Gabriel took a chance and reached over with his free hand to take Sam’s, biting his lip and looking nervously over at him. Sam just smiled and threaded their fingers together loosely so that if Gabriel needed his hand back while he was driving he could pull away easily. It wasn’t until they were turning into his parking lot that he needed both hands though. Once they were upstairs, Gabriel said, “How about I order the pizza while you grab a movie?”

“I picked last time,” Sam pointed out trying to be fair. 

“Okay then. Let’s pick up where we left off with Return of the Jedi,” he said as he grabbed the phone. He wasn’t sure how much of the movie they would end up watching, but at least having it on, even just in the background, would make things less awkward for both of them.

By the time he got off the phone the opening credits were just starting to roll and walked over and tucked his legs under him as he sat next to Sam, putting his arm around the back of the couch and leaning against him. Sam shifted a little closer, but kept his eyes on the television, so Gabriel just smiled and turned to watch the movie too. It was only about ten minutes in when Sam said, “So you’ve been…you know…out…for a while so I’m guessing you’ve had boyfriends before.”

“Yeah. Two in high school and one here last year,” Gabriel told him. 

“And have you…you know…slept with a guy before?” Sam asked chewing his lip nervously. 

“Yes,” Gabriel said, not offering any details unless Sam expressly asked for them. 

“Does it…hurt?” he asked. He would think it would hurt, but if it did then why would people do it. 

“It can if you’re not careful, but Sam.” He waited for Sam to look at him. “When and if we get to that point, I’ll be gentle. I promise.” Sam nodded and Gabriel decided that since they were talking about this he would ask his questions too. “So I know you’ve never slept with a guy before, but have you slept with a girl?” 

“No,” Sam said blushing brightly. “My…my dad got me a hooker for my sixteenth birthday. Family tradition he said, but I couldn’t…um…you know…”

“Yeah. I gotcha,” Gabriel said. “I haven’t either in case you were wondering. I figured out pretty early that I wasn’t really into girls so...” 

“Okay,” Sam said turning back to the movie, more than a little uncomfortable at the topic despite the fact that he brought it up. 

Gabriel wasn’t particularly comfortable with the topic either, but it was good that they were getting these things out in the open early to avoid any issues later on, so he had no problem with the abrupt end to the conversation and turned half his attention to the movie while the other half was on Sam. He absentmindedly played with Sam’s hair for a while and before long, Sam leaned his head onto Gabriel’s shoulder and Gabriel sighed contentedly and leaned his own head against Sam’s. They were interrupted by a knock at the door and Sam jumped away from him. Gabriel gave a short chuckle and pressed a kiss to Sam’s cheek as he got up to get the pizza. 

When Gabriel asked him what he wanted to drink, Sam asked for a soda and Gabriel thought that was a good idea and passed on a beer himself in favor of a soda. Not that one beer would do much to him, but better safe than sorry. Once they finished eating, they resumed their position and Gabriel grinned. He could practically feel Sam getting more and more comfortable with this and it wasn’t long before they were joking around again just like last time. At one point Sam looked up to say something to Gabriel and completely forgot what he was going to say when his eyes met the warm honey eyes looking at him and both of them forgot to breathe. Sam bit his lip as he tried to get up the nerve to kiss Gabriel. “Can I kiss you, Sammy?” Gabriel whispered breathlessly. 

Sam nodded slowly and Gabriel’s hand moved to Sam’s cheek, his thumb on his chin pulling his lip from between his teeth as he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Sam’s. It was a minute before Sam’s hand went to Gabriel’s waist and Gabriel took a chance and tried to deepen the kiss, sighing happily into it when Sam opened for him and their tongues tangled together. It was a good long while before they came up for air and Gabriel was the one to pull back. “I…I need a minute,” he breathed out. 

“Y-yeah. M-me too,” Sam said blushing brightly, putting some distance between them. 

Gabriel smiled and gave him a little peck on the lips before getting up, despite the uncomfortability of doing so with a raging erection. “I’ll just put another movie on, yeah?” He hoped Sam wasn’t going to leave now and when Sam smiled and nodded he held back his sign of relief as he walked over and decided to start the Lord of the Rings trilogy. At least it would make it more likely for Sam to come back again to watch the other two. They had class in the morning so they couldn’t make it too late tonight, but one more movie would put it around ten o’clock so that wasn’t too bad. 

Once Gabriel put the movie on and went to the kitchen to grab more drinks, he had himself under control and plopped down on the couch next to Sam, taking Sam’s arm and wrapping it around his middle as he leaned his back against him and put his head on his shoulder. Sam tensed up for a minute and Gabriel asked, “Is this okay?” 

“Yeah. I just…wasn’t expecting it,” Sam said as he relaxed and squeezed Gabriel tighter and Gabriel hummed contentedly and snuggled deeper. 

“Mmm. Comfy,” he said happily and Sam chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of Gabriel’s head. He was surprised how…easy…this was. It was just…natural. Other than his skittishness when something new popped out at him of course.

“So, since I’m your boyfriend now does that mean I get to do things like drive you around and buy your meals and stuff?” Gabriel asked casually, wanting confirmation on the boyfriend part as much as he wanted an answer to the question. 

“How about a compromise,” Sam suggested. “I don’t want you to be running all over the world chauffeuring me around, but maybe Monday and Wednesday when we have most of our classes in the same building, you can drive me?” 

“Yeah okay. That works. But I get to pay for all our meals,” Gabriel countered.

“Most of the time,” Sam agreed. 

“Good enough,” Gabriel said turning to kiss Sam’s cheek. “And maybe you could come hang out with my friends and I sometimes? I mean I know you’re always working on Saturday nights, but you could come hang on your breaks and stuff and we usually go out for a nice dinner on Tuesday nights and I pay for everyone so you wouldn’t have to worry about it looking like anything other than what it is,” Gabriel suggested hopefully. 

“But they wouldn’t know…”

“Not until you give the word, Sammy. I don’t like keeping secrets from my friends of course, but this situation is different. No one will know anything until you’re ready for them to.” He was hoping Sam would get comfortable enough with them to tell them sooner rather than later, but he wasn’t going to push. 

“Okay. Yeah. Maybe…maybe I’ll come with you Tuesday next week and see how it goes before I start wandering over during my breaks at work,” he said with a smile. 

“Fair enough,” Gabriel said. “Lindy lives in the building next door to you so I can pick you up when I do her around sixish?” 

“That works.” Sam got out of his last class on Tuesdays at four and it took half an hour to get back to the dorms on his bike so that gave him an hour and a half to get ready. 

“And maybe…we could do this again Sunday night?” he asked hoping he wasn’t pushing his luck.

Sam grinned and squeezed him tighter for a moment. “Yeah. Sunday sounds good,” he said happily and Gabriel couldn’t help his own grin as he moved a hand to Sam’s knee, but making no move to go any higher, grinning even wider when Sam didn’t tense up or say anything about it. This time they watched most of the movie, other than their talking of course and it wasn’t until the end credits were rolling before Gabriel shifted so that he was facing Sam and leaned in, pausing to give Sam a chance to stop him if he wanted to before kissing him deeply. It was about twenty minutes later before Gabriel managed to tear himself away again so that Sam could go. 

“I’ll drive you home?” Gabriel asked. 

“Nah. That’s okay. It’s a nice night and I kinda want to ride,” Sam told him as he put his jacket on and leaned over for one more quick kiss. He didn’t think he would be able to resist kissing Gabriel goodnight again if he drove him home and doing that in the car in the open wasn’t something he was at all comfortable with. 

Gabriel accepted that with just a hint of disappointment and once Sam was gone he headed to his room. He had a feeling he was going to get very well acquainted with his hand for a while.


	8. Chapter 8

Sam had a goofy grin on his face the whole way home just thinking about Gabriel. He was just so easy to be with. It was like all tension rolled off of him when they were together. Gabriel had this way of putting him completely at ease. He had never let himself really consider a guy in that way before beyond the hypothetical of course, but it just felt…right with Gabriel and he found himself wishing it was Sunday already. 

That Saturday night, Gabriel was back to getting the drinks for his group again, chatting up a storm with Sam whenever he did and when he closed out his tab, he surrepticiously grazed his fingers along the back of Sam’s hand as he took the receipt and Sam barely resisted the urge to look around frantically, knowing that no one would have noticed Gabriel’s move, but that would definitely draw attention. Sam gave Gabriel a nervous smile. “See you tomorrow, Sam. Come by whenever,” Gabriel said before he left, intentionally not giving Sam a chance to say anything, not wanting to risk him cancelling. 

The next morning Sam found himself too keyed up to sleep late so he decided to get an early start on his homework. He had gotten most of it done yesterday before work, but he wanted to get ahead now that he would apparently have a lot less free time to do it. Not that he was complaining. He was itching to go to Gabriel’s but he didn’t want to go too early so he forced himself to wait until four before he couldn’t wait any longer and grabbed his bike and headed out. 

It seemed like no sooner than he knocked on the door it flew open and as soon as it was closed behind him, he swept Gabriel up in kiss, which the shorter man melted into happily, tangling his hands in Sam’s hair. It didn’t last too long though and when it broke Sam stood back looking a little sheepish. Gabriel gave a short chuckle and said, “I missed you, Sammy,” as he leaned up to press one more short kiss to Sam’s lips. 

“Me too,” Sam said blushing a little. 

“I got that,” Gabriel teased with a grin and a wink. “So pizza again or you wanna try some Chinese this time?” he asked. 

“Whichever is good,” Sam said with a shrug so Gabriel tossed him the Chinese menu as he went over to grab the second Lord of the Rings movie and get it queued up. This time, aside from while they were eating, they ended up watching very little of the movie, too wrapped up in each other, only coming up for air long enough to switch the movie when it was over. It was halfway through the second movie when they found themselves laying down on the couch, Gabriel on top of Sam as his lips moved to Sam’s neck and he pressed his hips down. When Sam felt their erections rubbing together he tensed up. “G-Gabriel,” he said nervously as he pushed him back a little. 

Gabriel jumped away like he’d been burned. “Shit. Sorry, Sam. I…I got a little carried away. I’m sorry.”

“No, it…it’s okay. I did too,” Sam said bright red. 

“Let’s just…watch the movie for a little while?” Gabriel suggested and waited for Sam to nod before he moved back over and curled up to his side, willing his erection to go away and cursing himself for losing control like that. At least Sam wasn’t upset. That was a relief. He would have to be more careful in the future. They mostly watched movies and talked for the rest of the night, with a little kissing thrown in, but Gabriel was careful not to let things get out of hand again. Once again, Sam declined his offer to drive him home. 

Monday morning, as they’d decided, Gabriel picked Sam up at his dorm and they headed to class together. Gabriel had the Ferrari back now, but Sam grinned when he saw that Gabriel’d had a bike rack put on it and there was no question of why. Sam didn’t bother bringing his bike today though, knowing that Gabriel would drop him off after lunch and his last two classes were in buildings next door to each other. Gabriel took every opportunity to hold Sam’s hand while they were in the car, but having to walk around and even eat without touching him or letting on that they were together in any way was difficult. It had been hard enough last Saturday when Sam was working, but whether they were secret or not it wouldn’t really be appropriate while he was working. Now though, as they walked through the halls chatting, it was hard to resist. 

After their second class, Sam suddenly found himself pulled into the bathroom before he was being kissed soundly. “Sorry, Sammy. Couldn’t resist,” Gabriel said with a sheepish shrug when they split. 

“It…it’s okay,” Sam said breathlessly. “Long as you’re careful,” he added. Sure these bathrooms didn’t get used often, but they did on occasion and there were multiple stalls so them coming out of the bathroom together wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Sam gave him one more quick kiss before they headed out and went to lunch, this time hitting a deli that Gabriel liked, but was a little more pricy before Gabriel dropped him at his next class. 

When Gabriel dropped him off at his dorm, he asked, “You still coming to dinner tomorrow night?” 

“Sure.”

“Okay. I’ll be here about six,” he reiterated, just to make sure Sam remembered. 

“Okay. I’ll be waiting,” Sam told him giving his hand one more squeeze before he let go and got out. “See you tomorrow.”

The next night, Sam found that he actually liked Gabriel’s friends. They got along well and when he saw that no one was worrying about the prices, he didn’t even feel obligated to order something cheap and went with the shrimp alfredo and things went well for the next few weeks. Sam started joining the group on his breaks on Saturday nights and they quickly became his friends too. Particularly Lindy since she lived next door. Sam and Gabriel found a rhythm and were able to keep things secret in public and spent every Sunday and Wednesday evening at Gabriel’s place. They still hadn’t gone beyond kissing, but Sam was definitely considering taking the next step. He couldn’t forget how good Gabriel had felt on top of him. Even through his panic at the time it still felt good and he’d maybe like to try that again. 

He knocked on Gabriel’s door that Sunday evening, but before he could kiss Gabriel, the smaller man put a hand to his chest. “You should know…” Before he got any further, Jesse came out of the bathroom drying his hair wearing only a pair of sweatpants as he headed into Gabriel’s bedroom, not even noticing Sam there. Sam felt the tears stinging his eyes as he turned and ran from the apartment. “Shit,” Gabriel cursed before calling to Jesse. “I’ll be right back!” and rushing out after Sam. 

Sam was walking pretty fast, but Gabriel was flat out running and he caught up with Sam at the elevator, barely slipping on before the doors closed. “It’s not what you think…”

“It looked pretty clear to me,” Sam snapped.   
Gabriel knew if those doors opened that Sam would be gone in a blink and he would never get another chance at this so he reached over and hit the emergency stop button stranding them between floors. “Listen, Sam…”

“Start the elevator, Gabriel,” Sam said through gritted teeth. He refused to cry in front of him and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold it in. 

“No. Not until you listen. Jesse’s plumbing went out in his dorm room. He’s just here to take a shower and get ready for his date…with a girl. Jesse is straight as an arrow and there is nothing going on with us at all. Even if he were interested, I’m with you and I would never, ever, do that to you. To anyone. Okay? Please believe that.” Gabriel begged. 

“I…but…he went into your room. Not the guest room. Yours,” Sam said suspiciously. 

“Because he’s a diva and I have a full length mirror. That’s it. I swear, Sam,” Gabriel said earnestly. 

“So if I go back up there, he’ll be dressed up all nice and headed out for his own date?” Sam asked skeptically. 

“Well I don’t know if he’d be done by the time we get up there, but by the time he comes out of my room, yes.”

Sam narrowed his eyes at Gabriel and said, “Okay. We can go back up.” So help him if Gabriel stepped one foot in his room before Jesse came out or if things weren’t like Gabriel said, he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. 

When they got back upstairs, Gabriel ordered the pizza and then put on a movie seeing that Sam was just sitting on the couch watching him like a hawk. He knew that as far as Jesse could know this was just two guys hanging out for a casual movie and pizza night so he sat on the other end of the couch and put his feet up on the table as the movie started. It was only a few minutes later before Jesse came out and said, “Well I better be off. Don’t want to keep the lady waiting.”

“Any more than you already have you mean. You’re already half an hour late, idiot,” Gabriel joked as he threw one of his throw pillows at the preening man. 

“Yes, well. At least I have a good excuse. Catch you gents later,” he said bouncing out the door.


	9. Chapter 9

Once Jesse was gone, Sam visibly relaxed. “Gabriel, I…I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions…”

“No, Sam. It’s okay. I know it looked bad. I would have warned you but he was supposed to be gone before you got here and then when I tried to tell you…well…he has shitty timing and it looked really bad, but please know, Sammy. I would never, ever, do that to you. No matter what,” Gabriel assured him as he moved over next to him and took his hands. 

Sam was feeling more than a little insecure at the moment and he knew that with as slow as they were taking things, Gabriel must be tempted. “Things can happen, Gabriel,” he said worriedly. 

“They won’t, Sam. And on the extremely off chance that they did, I wouldn’t hide it from you. I would tell you and beg your forgiveness for my complete and utter stupidity. But it won’t happen,” Gabriel said firmly. “I am with you. Period. No matter how many people my idiot friends try to set me up with,” Gabriel said with an encouraging smile. He knew that at least part of this was due to his friends trying to set him up on a blind date last week. Since they didn’t know he was taken they figured it had been forever since Gabriel had been out with anyone and they wanted to help. He had turned them down cold, saying that he was taking a break from dating and wouldn’t hear any arguments, but he knew it bothered Sam. Part of him hoped that it would spur Sam into letting the secret out, but it didn’t seem to be. 

 

“Okay,” Sam said with a smile, leaning over to kiss Gabriel who sank gratefully into it before they turned to watch the movie, spending as much time talking as kissing. It wasn’t until the start of the third movie that Sam kept it going, moving both of his hands to Gabriel’s waist, waiting for his hormones to override his nerves, before he laid back, pulling Gabriel with him. 

Gabriel pulled back a little bit. “Sam?” he asked hopefully, wanting to make sure. 

Sam just pulled him into another kiss and held him tightly on top of him. He wasn’t good with words, but he would let his actions speak. When Gabriel rolled his hips down, Sam thrusted up against him and Gabriel moaned into the kiss, as one hand tangled in Sam’s hair and the other ran down his side, stopping at his waist, but sliding under Sam’s shirt, rubbing circles on the soft skin there and they rubbed together slowly, experimentally as Sam got his bearings and they were both being driven crazy. Before long one of Sam’s hands slid under Gabriel’s shirt, running over his back and the other hesitantly slid down to Gabriel’s ass. Gabriel moaned again as his lips moved away from Sam’s, nipping along his jawline before latching onto his neck, pulling another moan from Sam as he gripped Gabriel’s ass tight and arched up off the couch, pressing his cock even harder against Gabriel’s and they started moving faster and having trouble catching their breaths as Gabriel’s lips and tongue and teeth worked Sam’s neck. “God…Sam…” Gabriel gasped breathlessly. “I…I’m gonna…gonna cum…” his movements becoming frantic as he felt himself reaching the edge. Sam just held him tighter and wrapped his legs around Gabriel’s to give himself more leverage to thrust against him and when Gabriel felt Sam’s length pulsing under his that was the last straw and he spilled over too. 

Gabriel kissed Sam deeply as they rode out the wave and when they had come down from the high, Gabriel nuzzled against his neck. “We should go get cleaned up,” he whispered contentedly and he felt Sam pushing at him so he moved off him. God he hoped Sam didn’t regret that. 

He saw the alarm in Sam’s eyes as he said, “I…I can’t go out like this…my pants…I…”

Gabriel was relieved that was his only concern and rushed to say, “It’s okay, Sam. Just relax. We can fix this.” Sam looked at him hopefully. Hoping that he had an idea and Gabriel thought fast. “Okay, I can find you some shorts you can wear for now and we’ll throw them in the wash. You can wait for them to finish or you can just crash in the spare room tonight if it’s too late. I’ll be driving you to class in the morning anyway.”

“But…what will people think…me spending the night here?” Sam worried his lip between his teeth. 

“That you had too much to drink and crashed in the spare room. Happens all the time. Hell, after Lindy’s dad died last year she practically lived here for a few months.”

“O-Okay. We can do that then,” Sam said nervously. Staying overnight was a big step, but he would be in the spare room. It wasn’t like he was ‘staying the night’ per se. 

“Okay great. I’ll go find you some clothes,” Gabriel said pressing a quick kiss to Sam’s lips as he got up, glad that the crisis had been averted. Gabriel took the opportunity to change his own pants and boxers while he was in his room and dug out an old pair of shorts that was very baggy on him and had a stretchy waistband. They should fit Sam okay. He also grabbed one of his larger t-shirts in case Sam wanted to wash his shirt too, just so he would have a clean one for tomorrow. Once the laundry was started, they went back to the couch. “Sam?” Gabriel asked nervously as he sat down. When Sam looked at him he continued. “Are we good?” 

Sam gave a blushing smile. “Yeah. We’re good,” he said. 

“Good,” Gabriel said relieved as he curled back up to Sam’s side and started the movie back up. Sam soon realized that his erection was far more noticeable in these shorts, so kept the kissing to a minimum and when the movie was over Gabriel said, “I’m gonna go throw the clothes in the dryer and head to bed.”

“Yeah. I should probably go to bed too,” Sam said as he got up. 

Gabriel got up too and walked with him as far as the door to the spare bedroom before pulling him into a searing kiss. “Good night, Sam. Sleep well.”

“Good night, Gabriel. You too,” Sam said pressing one more quick kiss to Gabriel’s lips before slipping into the spare room. He’d been in here in passing before, but never more than a few minutes. He wasn’t surprised to find that the bed was extremely comfortable and he quickly fell asleep. 

The next morning Gabriel woke up a little earlier than usual, wanting to do something special and make breakfast for Sam. He was just scooping everything onto the plates when Sam came out of the room still rubbing his eyes. Gabriel poured him a cup of coffee and refilled his own, dropping a kiss on Sam’s lips and saying, “Good morning, gorgeous.”

Sam grinned. “You cook?” he asked surprised seeing the plates that Gabriel was putting in front of him and realizing that it was his nose that woke him. 

“Not a lot. Not too many ways you can screw up scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast though,” Gabriel said with a laugh. 

“It looks great. Thanks, Gabe,” Sam said happily. 

“Why don’t you try it before you thank me,” Gabriel joked.

Sam laughed and did so before thanking Gabriel again and they had a nice relaxed breakfast before they headed out to class. Sam was glad that midterms were this week which meant he wouldn’t have to get Gabriel to take him back to his dorms for his books. He had already emailed the paper in yesterday and just had the test today. They had a little more time to hangout than usual between their morning classes and got longer for lunch too since they could leave once they finished their tests. Sam was glad that he had frontloaded his schedule the way he had. He enjoyed only having two heavy class days. He had one afternoon class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and one long morning class on Fridays, not having been able to get out of a Friday morning class. He wasn’t really a morning person so only having to get up early three days a week was a godsend. Hopefully next semester he could work it so he would only have to get up early two days a week and dump the Friday morning class. Needless to say, after today he only had two more mid-terms to study for which he got done that night after classes so he would have the rest of the week free for his Tuesday dinners with the gang, Wednesday night with Gabriel, and working the rest of the week. Monday was really his only clear evening and everyone knew not to bother him on Monday nights.


	10. Chapter 10

Wednesday night, once they got back to Gabriel’s place after classes, Gabriel had decided that they would have their fun early tonight so he would have time to wash Sam’s pants before he had to leave. He knew Sam wasn’t ready to expose himself before he came and Gabriel hoped they could do that again. He knew that asking Sam to bring a change of clothes would just make him feel pressured so he wasn’t about to go there, and he knew that Sam wouldn’t want to stay over on Wednesday night. He had every intention of trying to maneuver Sam into staying on Sunday again though. 

After they finished eating, Gabriel kissed Sam deeply and waited until the hormones were getting the better of him before shifting and throwing a leg over Sam’s lap. He pulled back enough to ask, “Is this okay?” 

“Mmhmm,” Sam said pulling him down tighter as he crashed their lips back together. This time, now that he knew Sam was actually on board rather than just letting things run away with him, he felt free to let his hands wander over Sam’s chest and shoulders, delighting in Sam’s reaction when he ran his thumb over a nipple. When he felt both of Sam’s hand slide under his shirt over his chest and stomach and sides, he decided to take a chance and started unbuttoning Sam’s shirt. By the time he got to the third button he noticed Sam starting to tense up, so he quickly abandoned that endeavor and moved to safer territory over top of his shirt as Sam relaxed again. 

One of Sam’s hands moved up to pinch Gabriel’s nipple now that he knew how good that could feel, as the other went down to cup his ass and Gabriel let out a whimpering moan as he started moving faster and harder, sliding his lips to Sam’s neck and they were both nearing the end of the line. This time, Gabriel spilled over first, but Sam wasn’t far behind him. Gabriel stayed in Sam’s lap, snuggling against him as they came down from their high, but Sam was thinking. He knew why Gabriel stopped with his shirt and he knew what Gabriel thought was the reason for Sam tensing up, but the truth was, Sam was just nervous about being without a shirt period. It had nothing to do with the circumstances. He even swam with a shirt on. He knew he would have to get over that as far as Gabriel was concerned and he was trying to work up the nerve to do so. 

After a little while, Gabriel climbed off his lap and said, “We should probably go change so I can get the laundry started.”

“Yeah, okay,” Sam said getting up himself, but before they got far he reached out and grabbed Gabriel’s wrist to stop him. “Hang on. I…I need to…to show you something. I…I know you stopped with my shirt because I was uncomfortable and thank you for that, but it’s not why you think.” 

“You don’t have to thank me for that, Sam. I told you I’m never going to push anything further than you’re comfortable with and if I ever don’t notice you getting uncomfortable, please don’t hesitate to stop me, okay? You don’t have to show me anything you don’t want to,” Gabriel told him. 

“No, I know. I…I need to. I need you to know and I don’t want the first time you see to be…well…” Sam trailed off knowing that Gabriel got the gist as he took a deep breath and started unbuttoning his shirt. He held it together until he was done before he steeled himself for the reaction and opened it, sliding it off his shoulders just a little bit. 

Gabriel gasped and reached out a hand before pausing. “Can I?” he asked and Sam nodded, so Gabriel ran his fingers over the thick scar running from Sam’s shoulder to hip. “What happened?” he asked. 

“A few years ago, my dad, brother, and I were moving a diesel motor with the crane when one of the cables snapped and whipped out and caught me right across the chest. Cut me right to the bone,” Sam told him. “Now I’m stuck with this ugly scar.”

Gabriel placed a hand flat over the worst of it as he leaned up and kissed Sam. “You’re perfect, Sam. Just the way you are. Thank you for showing me.”

Sam gave a nervous smile and replaced his shirt, buttoning it back up quickly. “So yeah. That’s always gonna make me at least a little uncomfortable, but it’s okay if you still want to go ahead,” Sam told him. 

Gabriel considered that for a moment. This wasn’t something where he wasn’t ready for that step. It was an insecurity about his body and it was Gabriel’s job as the boyfriend to make him feel better about that. To make him feel like it didn’t matter so yeah. With this one area, he would ignore Sam’s discomfort in the future. And maybe he could help a little more too. He grabbed his shirt and bunched it up under his chin, showing Sam his own scars, telling the story without being asked. “I told you my brothers broke a few ribs when they beat me. Well they did that by stomping on me and those ribs broke through the skin.” He pointed at the jagged parts. “The doctors had to cut me open,” he pointed to the straight thin section, “to put them back into place. We all have scars, Sam. Some visible, some not. It’s just part of what makes you who you are.”

“And you can just accept it? Just like that?” Sam asked in awe. 

Gabriel chuckled. “Nah, I’m just as self-conscious about it as you are. I just hide it better. And I’m sure you don’t think any less of me for mine any more than I do you for yours,” he said wanting to make sure he got that point across. 

“Thanks, Gabriel,” Sam said leaning down for another kiss before he went to get changed. Gabriel had told him he’d leave the clothes he wore last time in the spare room in case he ever needed them again so he found them quickly and changed, dropping his clothes in the washing machine when he was done and watching Gabriel start it. If this was going to become a habit he should figure out how to work Gabriel’s machine and he really hoped this would become a habit. 

The next Sunday, Sam, following Gabriel’s train of thought, didn’t start their fun until late. He wanted an excuse to stay over too. It didn’t even dawn on him until morning that this week he would need his books. “Oh crap. Gabe we’re gonna have to swing by my dorm and grab my books before class.”

“Do you have anything due today?” Gabriel asked. 

Sam thought for a second. “No. Why?” 

“I’m sure I still have my books from last year shoved in the closet. You can use those today and maybe…um…maybe next weekend you could bring your books?” he asked chewing his lip nervously. He really wanted this to become an every weekend thing. Despite the fact that they weren’t sleeping together or even sharing a bed, he liked having the mornings with Sam.

Sam blushed as he looked down, but said, “Yeah. I…I can do that.”

Gabriel grinned and leaned over to kiss Sam before popping his last bite of food in his mouth. “I’ll go get started on looking for those books.” 

Sam smiled as he finished his breakfast too before getting up to put the dishes in the sink and heading into the spare room where Gabriel was. “You need some help?” 

“Yeah. You wanna check the other side of the closet?” Gabriel asked. “Nothing’s labeled so just open the box. All the textbooks should be in the same box.” Sam opened the top box to see photo albums and a bunch of loose pictures. He caught a glimpse of Gabriel with an arm around some guy Sam didn’t know before he closed the box, determined not to snoop, but wondering if it was one of Gabriel’s exes. He slid that box out and checked the one underneath it finding it full of clothes, so moved it out of the way too. The next box had textbooks in it though. “I think I got it,” Sam said, pulling it out so he could look through it. He quickly found the four books he would need today and packed the rest back in the box and started putting the boxes back in the closet before they headed out to class. 

As they were driving, Sam couldn’t help himself. “I noticed a box of pictures in the closet.” He would let Gabriel say what he wanted to on the subject. 

Gabriel chuckled. “Yeah I went through a bit of a photography phase in high school. I took tons of pictures of all my old friends.”

“And old boyfriends?” Sam asked trying to keep it casual. 

“Yeah. Old boyfriends too. I hate throwing pictures away. Never know when you might want to look back on fond memories…or need blackmail material,” Gabriel added with an amused wink. He knew what Sam wasn’t saying. He wanted to know why Gabriel kept pictures of old boyfriends around and maybe was feeling a little insecure. The best way to fix that would be treating it like it was no big deal because it wasn’t a big deal, though he could understand Sam wanting clarification.


	11. Chapter 11

Over the next month they took a lot of small steps in their physical relationship and some bigger ones in their emotional one as they opened up more and more about their pasts. Sam wanted more, but he didn’t know how to ask for it. He was really bad at talking about stuff like that and Gabriel was trying so hard to be patient and not push that he wouldn’t ask either. One night as they were sitting on the couch making out, hands wandering over chests and stomachs, when Sam suddenly grabbed Gabriel’s hand from his stomach and moved it down, quickly returning his own hand to Gabriel’s chest and blushing brightly. Gabriel got the hint, but still moved his hand over Sam’s erection slowly and tentatively at first, making sure that Sam really was good with it. 

Sam moaned into the kiss and bucked his hips up into Gabriel’s hand as his lips tore from Gabriel’s and moved to his neck. Sam’s hand was moving rougher and more insistently over every inch of Gabriel’s bare chest and stomach, having long since shed their shirts as Gabriel was rubbing him harder. Gabriel thought it seemed like Sam was trying to get up the nerve to do more with his hand, but Gabriel wasn’t about to physically move it like Sam had. “You can…touch me too…if you want,” Gabriel said breathlessly, and apparently Sam was just waiting for an invitation because his hand moved down too and Gabriel’s breath hitched as Sam rubbed hesitantly over the bulge in his pants. 

As Sam started gaining a little more confidence in what he was doing, Gabriel moaned and shifted so that he was leaning back a bit, giving Sam a better angle as his own hand picked up the pace on Sam’s cock, trying very hard not to get Sam off, or get off himself yet. If Sam wanted to explore, Gabriel definitely didn’t want it to end too soon and a while later when he felt Sam’s shaking hand fumbling with the button on his pants, he was very glad he hadn’t let it end yet. Gabriel shifted again so that Sam could get an easier angle on his pants and it took a minute before he felt the button pop followed by the zipper and then Sam seemed to hesitate again. Gabriel was just about to stop it when Sam’s hand slid inside his boxers and wrapped around his length and Gabriel let out a whimpering moan as he bucked up into Sam’s hand. “S-Sammy…C-Can I? Please?” Gabriel asked as his own hand moved to fiddle with the button on Sam’s pants, not making any move to unhook it yet, just making it clear what he was asking. 

“P-please,” Sam said nodding, capturing Gabriel’s lips again and Gabriel waste no time getting Sam’s pants open and taking him in his hand and stroking him, knowing neither of them could wait much longer and even if Sam tried to take it further than this, Gabriel knew it would be a bad idea. It was no time at all before they were whimpering into each other’s mouths as hands worked fast and hard over each other’s cocks. When Gabriel felt Sam’s pulsing before the warm liquid hit his hand, he was gone too as he gave a low moan to join Sam’s. 

Once he was spent, Sam jumped up and made quickly for the bathroom and Gabriel gave a nervous sigh as he ran his clean hand through his hair. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake there. He got up and made his way to the other bathroom to clean himself up and he was back to the couch trying to stay calm when Sam made his way back. “Was…was that okay? I mean, if it was too much, I…I’m sorry.”

“No,” Sam said quickly. “It…it was good. Just…intense is all.”

“Too intense? Because we can dial it back a notch. I don’t mind,” Gabriel assured him. 

“No. It’s fine. I…I liked it,” Sam said blushing brightly and not looking at Gabriel. 

Gabriel grinned, happy and relieved and curled back up to Sam’s side. He was pretty sure he was falling in love with Sam, but the idea of telling him so terrified him. He’d never loved anyone before. Not since he was old enough to realize what horrible people his family were and that hardly counted. He knew he was Sam’s first boyfriend and worried that Sam wouldn’t want something serious for his first relationship. For all he knew he was just an experiment to Sam. He tried to push that thought from his head. He knew Sam wasn’t like that and it was just his fear talking and he forced his attention back to their movie, snuggling a little closer to Sam and smiling when Sam’s arm tightened around him. 

It wasn’t until the movie was over that Gabriel realized a down side to this new step in their relationship. He leaned up to kiss Sam deeply before pulling back, running his knuckles gently down the side of Sam’s face. “You can still stay, you know. Even though you don’t ‘need’ to.”

Sam bit his lip nervously. Up until now he’d always had an excuse, no matter how thin it was. He didn’t have that to hide behind anymore. If he stayed it would be because that’s what he wanted and no other reason. He did want to. But he hadn’t realized how comforting it was to have something to hide behind. Now it would be obvious…well…more obvious. “Yeah. Okay,” he said with a shy smile. 

Gabriel grinned. “Good,” he said happily, leaning in for another kiss. He thought about offering Sam to share a bed with him, but he stopped himself in time. As shy as Sam was about staying in the spare room, he would surely do a runner if Gabriel even hinted at sharing a bed, whether anything would happen or not. He hoped that one day would find Sam in his bed. He could be patient. As much as he wanted to have sex with Sam, more than that he just wanted to sleep with him. To wake up next to him in the morning. To have his warmth to cuddle with at night. It wasn’t just about sex, but Gabriel knew that one was the key to the other. Sam would never share his bed until he was ‘sharing his bed’. 

The next morning, Sam woke to the smell of something burning and rushed out of the bedroom to find Gabriel scooping something from the pan into the trash with a very disgruntled look on his face. “Um…Gabe?” Sam asked sleepily still trying to process the scene. 

“Sorry, Sam,” Gabriel said sheepishly. 

“What was that?” he asked curiously. 

“It was supposed to be a pancake. Not sure what it actually was,” he said with a shrug.

Sam chuckled as he stepped over and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s stomach, pressing himself against his back and pressing a kiss to the side of his neck. “Good thing I don’t just like you for your cooking huh?” he teased. 

“Oh yeah. I think we’d have been done for a long time ago if that was the case,” he said with a laugh. “It was supposed to be easy. Mix, pour, flip. I don’t understand how it went wrong,” he said frowning at the trash can where the remains of at least five pancakes lay in various stages. Sam looked over his shoulder and laughed loudly. “What?” Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow not sure if he should be offended or amused. 

“It’s like the life cycle of a pancake in there. From mostly dough to partially cooked to crispy,” he said resting his head on Gabriel’s shoulder as he laughed. 

Gabriel snorted a bit as his own laughter escaped. It was kinda funny and that was rather how it worked out. The first one had still been mostly liquid when he tried to flip it. The next one was just firm enough for him to lift about a centimeter before it fell apart, the next one was the closest, but still became a mess, the one after that Gabriel thought was good until he tried to cut it and it was more like leather than pancake and the last one was extra crispy so yeah. It was funny. At least he already had the bacon on and he could quickly whip up some scrambled eggs. He just wanted to do something different and special for Sam this time. 

Sam could see the disappointment under the amusement and gave his boyfriend a squeeze. “It’s okay, Gabe. Just the fact that you make me breakfast at all makes it pretty special.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but smile at that as he turned in Sam’s arms for a kiss before saying, “That’s sweet,” and then swatting him playfully with a spatula. “But if you don’t want to starve you gotta let me go so I can see what I can salvage here.” He pressed one more impish kiss to the end of Sam’s nose as he turned to grab the eggs out of the fridge and set to whipping them up.


	12. Chapter 12

The next Sunday, when Sam’s hand moved down to Gabriel’s erection, he was more sure of himself, having also gotten a little practice on Wednesday too, and wasted no time undoing Gabriel’s pants and pulling out his hard cock. Gabriel’s lips moved to Sam’s neck as he returned the favor and they stroked each other slowly. After a while, Gabriel couldn’t help himself. “Let me suck you, Sammy?” he whispered hopefully as he nibbled along Sam’s collarbones. 

“Y-yeah…okay…” Sam gasped, cock twitching at the thought. 

Gabriel immediately fell to his knees in front of Sam. He could work his way down some other time. Right now he just wanted to get Sam’s dick in his mouth before Sam changed his mind. He wrapped his lips around the tip and sucked hard as he lowered his head, taking Sam as far in his mouth as he could. He wasn’t exactly an expert at this, having only done it a few times, but that was the nice thing about being with someone so inexperienced. They didn’t notice if you weren’t that great at it. Judging by Sam’s keening moan and the hand that tightened in his hair he must be doing okay at least. He gagged a little when Sam thrust up suddenly, but managed to compensate, his hand covering what his mouth couldn’t reach as his other hand stroked himself hard and fast. 

As Gabriel suspected, it wasn’t long before Sam was gasping and moaning. “F-fuck…Gabe…I’m…I’m close…” Sam didn’t want to blow without warning him first, but Gabriel made no effort to move away. If anything he did the opposite as he started sucking harder, getting his tongue in on the action as he bobbed his head faster. “Shit…I…I’m…coming…Gabe!” Sam cried as he spilled over and Gabriel moaned around his length as he came too just increasing the sensation for Sam who was panting and twitching as Gabriel swallowed everything he was spilling before pulling his mouth off and pressing a line of soft kisses up Sam’s softening cock and then his stomach and chest and throat. Before he could get to Sam’s lips though, Sam turned his head away with a grimace. 

Gabriel chuckled a bit. “Right. Yeah. I’ll go brush my teeth first,” he said indulgently. “It took a while before I would let anyone kiss me after that too.” He wanted to make sure Sam knew that, while he understood and had been there, there wasn’t anything wrong with it either. He knew it would take time before Sam’s mind would be able to come to terms with that though. 

“Thanks, Gabe,” Sam said sheepishly as Gabriel got up and winked at him as he tucked himself away and did his pants back up before heading to the bathroom. 

By the time Gabriel got back, Sam had straightened himself up as well and Gabriel plopped down next to him, breathing a big puff of air in his face. “See? No more dick breath. Kiss now?” he asked playfully. 

Sam chuckled and leaned in for a kiss after which Gabriel curled up to his side contentedly. “You know, I always half expect you to start purring when you do that,” Sam teased. 

Gabriel grinned and rolled his tongue in the closest approximation he could get of a purr and he heard Sam’s breath hitch before he found himself being kissed soundly. He had a feeling he knew why and rolled his tongue again, while Sam’s tongue was plundering his mouth and Sam gave a breathy moan. Neither of them were up for another round just yet though so it didn’t last long. “Like that do you?” Gabriel asked smugly. 

“Fuck yeah,” Sam said breathlessly. 

“I’ll have to remember that for next time,” he said huskily with a nibble to Sam’s earlobe. 

“Keep that up and next time will be now,” Sam joked. 

Gabriel laughed and pulled back a bit, pressing a quick kiss to Sam’s lips before curling back up to his side. A little while later, Gabriel brought up the big subject that he’d been trying to approach all night, but couldn’t quite find the right way to say it, so he would just have to do his best. “So thanksgiving is coming up,” he said. 

“Is it?” Sam asked. His family had never been big on holidays so he never really paid attention. 

“Yeah. In less than two weeks. The whole gang will be here and we’re doing it up right and…um…I was hoping…” he worried his lip in his teeth as he prepared to bite the bullet. 

“Of course I’ll come, Gabe,” Sam said figuring that was what he was going to ask. “What should I bring?”

Gabriel ignored Sam’s question for the time being as he said, “I was hoping…you would come as…as my boyfriend?” 

“You mean…like…tell everyone? About us?” Sam asked nervously as he shifted uncomfortably. 

“Okay. I guess that’s a no. That’s okay,” Gabriel said trying to hide his disappointment. He’d known it was a long shot. 

“I…I’m just…not ready yet,” Sam said apologetically.

“That’s okay. I understand,” Gabriel lied as he closed his eyes and willed the hurt away, reminding himself that the secrecy was about Sam’s insecurities about himself, not about Gabriel. He could be patient a little longer, but he had every intention of spending a real Christmas with Sam, one way or another. Assuming he hadn’t screwed this up by then at least. 

“So…um…thanksgiving?” Sam said trying to get the conversation back on track. 

“Right. Well. Everyone is gathering over here early that morning. Matt is in charge of most of the cooking, being the culinary expert of the group and he won’t let anyone else touch the bird or the stuffing and the rest of us just get ordered around as needed.”

“So when are you going shopping? I bet most of the stores will be sold out pretty soon,” Sam told him. He knew Gabriel had nothing for a thanksgiving dinner yet. 

“Oh, no. I don’t touch the shopping. I fork over the card to the expert. Matt will be going shopping tomorrow after he gets out of class,” Gabriel told him with a chuckle. 

“So you just hand over your card to other people?” Sam asked incredulously. Letting someone open a bar tab with you right there was one thing, but handing a card worth two million to someone so they could leave with it and go shopping was a whole different story. 

“Sure. I trust Matt. I trust all the gang,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“So if I asked to borrow your card for something you’d just hand it over?” Sam asked. He had no intention of doing so of course, but he wanted to see how high he rated in this trust thing, being rather new to ‘the gang’. 

“Absolutely,” Gabriel told him. “I trust you most of all,” he said kissing the end of Sam’s nose impishly. 

 

Thanksgiving rolled around and Gabriel had a really hard time keeping his hands off Sam. It was hard enough out there in the world, but this was his apartment. This was the one place they didn’t usually have to hide and Gabriel hated it, but he wasn’t a theatre major for nothing. Sam wasn’t having a much easier time of it and it was only his fear of being found out that kept him from being too obvious. They had an enjoyable day, had a lot of fun and good food and laughter, but there was this tension underneath…for Gabriel at least…that had him vowing never to do this again. Never again would he have a major holiday in hiding like this and if that meant giving Sam an ultimatum then so be it, but he couldn’t do this much longer. He wouldn’t do this much longer. He’d said at the beginning that they could keep it secret ‘a while’ while Sam ‘wrapped his head around things’. Next week would be three months that they’d been together. He’d lived up to his end of the bargain. It was time to go all in or get out.


	13. Chapter 13

Gabriel decided not to bring it up that Sunday night, and he didn’t like bringing up heavy stuff on Wednesdays since they were usually just trying to relax after a long stressful day of classes so it was another week and a half before Gabriel brought the subject up again. When Sam got there, he wasted no time before saying, “I wanna spend Christmas together, Sam. I mean, really together.” He knew neither of them had any intention of going home to their families so it wasn’t like he was asking for anything unreasonable. 

“Gabriel…please…I…I can’t,” Sam said wearily. 

“No, Sam. ‘I’ can’t. I can’t keep doing this. I was good with keeping it a secret for a while to give you a chance to come to terms with things, but by the time Christmas gets here we will have been together for almost four months. I’m tired of being some dirty little secret you keep hidden away,” he snapped irritably. This had been building up for a while so he wasn’t exactly as reasonable as he perhaps should have been. 

“Wh…what are you saying?” Sam asked biting his lip worriedly. 

“I’m saying, in or out, Sam. Make a choice,” Gabriel said trying to keep his breathing even. 

Sam just stared at him for a good long while and Gabriel could feel his heart breaking the longer Sam went without speaking. “I…I’m sorry, Gabriel,” Sam finally said as he got up and walked away, trying to keep his tears at bay at least until he was out of there. 

Gabriel closed his eyes against his own tears and took a few deep breaths, but he crumbled before Sam even got to the door. He rushed after him and grabbed his wrist. “Sam, wait,” he said almost in a panic. Sam stopped, but didn’t turn around to look at him. “How about…how about a compromise. What if we take a trip…somewhere no one knows us and we’ll never see anyone again. We can spend Christmas together, out in the open, and you won’t have to worry about anything okay?”

Sam might be able to do that. If it was that or lose Gabriel…maybe. But… “And how long until we have this conversation again Gabriel? How long until I get another ultimatum?”

“How about we make a deal. You do this for me and…and we can give it until our six month anniversary. I want to take you out somewhere special for our six month anniversary but I won’t bring it up again until then. Okay?” Gabriel asked with a desperate hope that Sam would take it. It was the best he could do and he needed Sam to accept it. He meant it when he told Sam he couldn’t keep doing this. It was killing him. No matter how much his head knew that it was all about Sam…his heart was a different story. Every time Sam turned away from him in public, every time they lied to their friends, every time Sam panicked at the thought that someone might suspect…it killed him and thanksgiving was just the last straw. 

Sam took a few deep breaths as he considered Gabriel’s offer. If he took it he could have almost three months to get used to the idea of telling people and Gabriel made sense. They couldn’t keep it secret forever. Not as long as they were together anyway. If Sam walked out of here now; if he left Gabriel; he would be able to keep it secret for as long as he wanted. No one ever had to know he was gay. He couldn’t do it though. He couldn’t leave Gabriel. He could let a bunch of strangers see them together in a few weeks and buy himself some time. He would try to be okay with coming out in less than three months, and if he really couldn’t do it…then he would have to make the hard choice then. Gabriel was offering him a lifeline and he couldn’t not take it. Sam turned and swept Gabriel into a kiss, both of their tears finally falling in relief. 

“Please tell me that’s a yes,” Gabriel said hopefully as his thumbs wiped away Sam’s tears and Sam’s did the same. 

“Yes. That’s a yes,” Sam said and Gabriel kissed him again. 

Gabriel had been looking for the right time to do this and now seemed like the best opportunity he would get. He definitely hadn’t wanted to do it before that conversation for fear of it seeming like emotional blackmail, but now… He tried his best to ignore the way his heart threatened to beat out of his chest and leaned his forehead against Sam’s, unable to look at him when he was saying it or he would definitely chicken out. He barely managed to keep his voice steady as he whispered, “I love you, Sam.” His hands were shaking like leaves as they hung over Sam’s shoulders and he felt like his knees were about to give way under him, making him wish he had done with when they were sitting, as he waited for a response…any response, from his frozen boyfriend. 

There was a long pause before Sam started to speak nervously. “Gabriel…I…” Gabriel closed his eyes and bit his lip waiting for the blow to come. “I…I love you too,” Sam breathed out. Gabriel finally allowed himself to breathe again as he pulled Sam into a slow sweet kiss, pouring his whole heart into it. It didn’t take long for it to become heated and when Sam lifted Gabriel up, Gabriel wrapped his legs around Sam’s waist and Sam walked them over to the couch. Sitting down with Gabriel in his lap. 

Gabriel started to unbutton Sam’s shirt as he pulled his lips away from Sam’s and nipped down his jaw and moved over to nibble his ear. “I love you, Sammy,” he whispered with a little more confidence this time. 

“I love you, Gabe,” Sam whispered back, his hands underneath Gabriel’s shirt dancing over his back and sides. He waited until Gabriel was sliding his shirt off his shoulders before he tugged Gabriel’s over his head. Before long, Gabriel was pushing Sam back onto his back as he grinded against him, kissing over his neck and shoulders before making a detour back to his lips for a few minutes. That lasted a good long while before Sam’s hands went to the front of Gabriel’s pants and Gabriel’s breath hitched. That was new. Sam got Gabriel’s pants undone and pulled his hard cock out the front of his boxers and started stroking. Gabriel had no idea how far Sam intended to take this so tried to hold himself back, but when Sam’s other hand slid down the back of Gabriel’s pants to grip his ass, that thought flew out of his head and he was fumbling with Sam’s pants, hoping against hope that Sam wouldn’t tell him to stop. When Sam’s cock sprung free, Sam removed his hand from Gabriel’s and pulled him down hard, both of them giving low gasping moans as their naked lengths slid together. 

“Oh…God…Sam…” Gabriel gasped as he reached down to wrap around both of them and stroke slowly, squeezing them together and Sam bucked up into his hand, panting. After a few minutes Gabriel’s hands moved to the sides of Sam’s pants and started to slide them down. 

“Uh-uh,” Sam said, keeping his ass firmly down on the couch so that Gabriel couldn’t move them, but Gabriel was prevented from moving away by the hand on the back of his neck pulling him in for a kiss and the arm across his lower back holding him down tightly, so Gabriel took that to mean, ‘don’t go any farther, but don’t stop either’ so he didn’t. He just reached back down and started stroking them again, knowing he wasn’t gonna last much longer. When he felt himself reaching the edge, he could tell that Sam was close too so he whispered huskily, “Cum for me, Sammy,” as he gave a sharp bite to Sam’s earlobe and Sam spilled over with a whimper, pulling Gabriel’s orgasm from him too. 

Gabriel kissed Sam slow and sweet as they came down from their high. “I love you Sam,” he whispered again, too enamored with hearing it to stop saying it. 

“I love you too, Gabe. I’m sorry I’m not ready for…you know…”

Gabriel knew where the confusion was coming from. He knew the stereo-typical assumptions when a guy said those words. “Sam. In no way was ‘I love you’ code for ‘I want sex’. The only thing it meant is that I love you,” he said seriously. “Please tell me that wasn’t why…”

“No,” Sam said quickly. “No, that was because I wanted to. Really.”

Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief as he let his head fall to Sam’s shoulder. “Good. I never, ever, want you to feel obligated or pressured in any way, Sam. Please tell me you know that.”

“I know, Gabe. And thank you for that. Most people wouldn’t be nearly so patient,” he said with a smile. 

“Then most people are assholes,” Gabriel said with a huff as he got up off Sam with one more quick kiss. As Sam got up, Gabriel’s lips twitched at the mess on Sam’s chest. “Might wanna take a shower,” he suggested. When Sam raised an eyebrow, Gabriel raised his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean together,” he said with a chuckle. “Not that I’d say no,” he said impishly stealing a kiss before he darted for his own room with a laugh. He figured after his assurances to Sam, he could joke around a bit about it and he was just in too great of a mood to hold his joy in right now.


	14. Chapter 14

Once they were curled up back on the couch, Gabriel brought up the Christmas trip. “So I’m thinking we can leave for our trip the day after classes let out and come back with two days to spare before the new semester starts?” he suggested. 

“Yeah, ok, but…well…what will people think when we take a trip together? Will we be sharing a room? Do you have an idea in mind of where we should go?”

“Easy, Sammykins. One question at a time. We can always say that neither of us like our families so we are spending Christmas together. No one will think much of it. You know everyone else is going home for the holidays. Well Lindy is going home with Matt but you know what I mean. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can always say you’re going home to try and make amends with your family and I’ll say I’m going alone. I did that last year. As far as sharing a room, I have a suite on standby that has two bedrooms just in case someone else wanted to come with me this year and last year I went on the spur of the moment and got stuck staying in some fleabag motel so I booked this one before I left last year. And I was thinking Vienna. They have the most amazing Christmases there and where better to go when you don’t want to run into anyone you know than outside the country.”

“I…um…I don’t have a passport,” Sam pointed out a big problem with that plan. 

“That’s no problem. We can get one expedited for you. You’ll have to get up a little early Tuesday morning but we can get it in plenty of time,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam didn’t know how comfortable he was about the whole money aspect with Gabriel paying for a whole trip to Austria in the most expensive season, but given the fact that this was a compromise he had to make to keep from losing him, he didn’t really feel that he had a leg to stand on to complain, and Gabriel hated when money became an issue between them anyway so he would accept it. “Then yeah okay. As long as I can get my passport in time, I’ll just tell people I’m going home if they ask.” The only people that knew that he didn’t get along with his family were their group of friends and they didn’t know he had been cut off so he could always play it as obligation or trying to make peace, like Gabriel said. 

“Okay. Good. Thank you, Sammy,” Gabriel said pulling him in for a kiss.

“I do love you, Gabriel,” Sam said wanting to make sure that was clear. He knew it must be hard on Gabriel hiding all the time. He hadn’t missed that ‘dirty little secret’ line before and hated that Gabriel felt that way. Maybe this trip would be good for them. And maybe it could get him more comfortable with the idea of coming out. 

“And I love you, Sammy,” Gabriel said contentedly curling up to his side. 

“Does that…I don’t know…scare you?” Sam asked, hoping he wasn’t the only one. 

“Hell yeah,” Gabriel said with a nervous chuckle. 

“Me too,” Sam said quietly, pulling Gabriel a little closer. “So what do you want for Christmas?” Sam asked trying to change the subject. 

“Just to spend it with you,” Gabriel told him happily. 

“I mean like for a gift,” Sam asked amusedly. 

“I’m not big on gifts,” he said with a shrug. “Anyone can go out and spend a little money and anything I want I can buy myself. Someone spending their time on me means so much more,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam could understand that. For someone coming from a family that could buy him anything, but was so cold emotionally and stingy with their time, it made sense. That at least gave Sam some ideas. He had one big idea, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he would be able to go through with it, so it would be good to have a backup. He would try to think of something special. 

Sam’s last final was on the fifteenth of December and Gabriel’s was the day before so they left on the sixteenth. It was evening on the seventeenth when they arrived in Austria and once they landed, Gabriel took the reigns and reached out to take Sam’s hand as they walked through the airport. Sam was extremely tense and looking around waiting for someone to say something. They got a few stares which just made Sam more on edge before Gabriel rolled his eyes. “They’re just staring because you look like a deer caught in the headlights. Relax.”

Sam tried his best, and at least on the outside he looked reasonably relaxed and found that Gabriel was right. They didn’t get near as many looks. In fact, most people didn’t pay them any attention at all. “So what now?” Sam asked once they had retrieved their bags. 

“Well I arranged for a shuttle to the resort, and I figure we can have a quick dinner there and then crash. I know you’re probably as exhausted as I am,” Gabriel told him. Between the time difference and spending sixteen hours traveling they were both about ready to pass out. “We can go over our itinerary in the morning over breakfast.”

Gabriel kept his PDA’s light over dinner. Just holding his hand and occasionally brushing a hair out of his eyes. He planned to work Sam up to more gradually over the next few weeks. Classes didn’t start back up until the ninth so they weren’t leaving until the sixth so had almost three weeks here. He hoped that by the time they got back, Sam would be comfortable telling people about them, but he had promised not to bring it up so he wouldn’t, even if Valentine’s day would be a nightmare. 

By the time they finished eating, they were practically falling asleep on each other so they just had a quick kiss before going to their separate bedrooms. It was only around seven pm in Austria, but they slept through a solid fourteen hours. They headed to a little café down the street for breakfast and Gabriel pulled out some brochures to look at while they ate. “So I’m thinking, and feel free to chime in wherever, that we take an easy day today. Walk around downtown, look at the decorations, maybe hit a few of the markets. Tomorrow I’m thinking ice skating after lunch and the Vienna Boy’s choir is performing tomorrow evening…”

“I’ve never been ice skating before,” Sam said nervously. 

“Have you ever been rollerblading?” Gabriel asked. 

“Yeah. I mean…not often, but I’m not too bad at it.”

“Then you’ll pick it up quickly. It’s not that different. Besides half the fun is trying to keep each other on our feet,” Gabriel said cheerfully. 

“Yeah, okay,” Sam said with a grin. 

“There are a few other performances I reserved tickets for and I definitely wanna go to the big Christmas eve ceremony and a New Year’s party somewhere, but other than that we can just plan as we go?” 

“That sounds good,” Sam said with a smile and Gabriel just handed him the brochures to go through and find stuff he wanted to do or see while they were there and they finished their breakfast and started walking towards downtown. Sam hadn’t even realized they were holding hands until halfway through the morning as they walked around and he was in awe at the casual beauty on display here. All the decorations were amazing and there were groups of carolers on every corner. They stopped listen to a few and Sam tensed up the first few times Gabriel snuggled up to his side and put his head on his shoulder while they listened, but over time he relaxed. 

After a lazy lunch, Gabriel pulled him into a huge toy store and said, “Go nuts.”

“For who?” Sam asked incredulously as he looked around at all the kids toys. 

Gabriel just grinned and pointed at the sign for the Christmas toy drive. “I’ve done this the last couple years since I got access to my trust fund. Just grab everything you ever wished you could have as a kid,” he told him. 

Sam just grinned at how amazing his boyfriend was and they split up and started just grabbing everything they could find and filling up carts. Sam didn’t just get things he would have wanted as a kid. He grabbed quite a few girl toys too. They met back up at the register an hour later and started piling stuff on the counter. The final total had Sam’s eyes bugging out. “Gabriel…that’s…”

“You’re right. Less than I spent last year. That just won’t do. I’ll be right back,” he said disappearing back into the store and coming back with another armload of toys. He knew exactly what Sam meant, of course, but chose to ignore it. “Much better,” he said satisfied when he got the new total. He was thanked profusely by the clerk, but he just waved it off. 

As they walked out Sam shook himself out of his stupor. “You just spent twenty seven thousand dollars on toys,” he said in shock. 

Gabriel just gave a sheepish shrug. “Like I said before. If I can’t do something good with all my money, what’s the point in having it. Doesn’t get much better than making sure a bunch of kids get a great Christmas.”

“You’re amazing,” Sam said sweeping Gabriel up into a kiss right there on the street and Gabriel sank into it blissfully.


	15. Chapter 15

Once he realized what he was doing, kissing Gabriel like that in plain view of everyone, he jumped back and looked around nervously only to find that no one seemed to have noticed. Gabriel chuckled. “I told you, Sammy. No one cares,” he said pulling Sam in for another short kiss before taking his hand and leading the way down the street. They stopped to grab some hot cocoa and Gabriel led them over to a bench where they could people watch and see one of his favorite groups of carolers of the day and they spent the rest of the afternoon, Gabriel curled up to Sam’s side, sipping hot chocolate and watching the Christmas bustle. 

After a nice dinner they headed back to the hotel. Gabriel wanted to decorate the suite and they had picked up some decorations. The hotel already had a decorated tree in the room, but Gabriel wanted to go all out. It was his first time celebrating the holidays with someone he actually cared about. His family had never been big on Christmas. Oh they had done all the obligatory things like Christmas parties and all. They never even decorated on their own though. They actually hired people to do it. Not to mention the holidays were always so cold and all the presents that were showered on them just made it even more so, hence Gabriel’s distaste for material presents. 

Sam was on cloud nine too. His family Christmases had left a lot to be desired too, but this one was shaping up to be perfect. He had a great time with the decorating and loved the way he and Gabriel played around and stole kisses and just had fun while doing it. It really felt like a holiday and he was really glad he had agreed to this trip. It was getting him out of his comfort zone but he was starting to realize that didn’t have to be a bad thing. Sam was getting more and more sure of his gift to Gabriel. At this point waiting until Christmas was going to be the hard part. 

The next day, they had a relaxing morning in the room before Gabriel dragged them out for lunch before ice skating. Sam was more than a little unsteady on the skates and Gabriel kept having to catch him at first, but they were having fun. True to Gabriel’s word though, Sam caught on pretty quick and it was only a few minutes before he was steady on his feet. He was still trying to get the hang of moving though so Gabriel took his hands and pulled him along, skating backwards in front of him. “You’re good at this,” Sam observed. 

“I grew up in New York. Ice skating is pretty much a requirement,” Gabriel said with a laugh. 

“Well don’t let me slow you down,” Sam said cheerfully. “Go have fun.”

“I AM having fun,” Gabriel said doing a loop around his boyfriend. Sam let out a laugh at Gabriel’s playfulness and before long he had the hang of it enough to actually skate instead of just be pulled along. He fell a few times, usually pulling Gabriel down with him sending them into gales of laughter and they had a perfect afternoon before having dinner and heading out to the Vienna Boy’s Choir performance. “This is all so much better with someone to share it with,” Gabriel said contentedly snuggling up to Sam’s side. 

Sam was reminded that Gabriel had come here alone last year and felt a pang of sympathy. Spending the holidays alone in such a magical place with couples and families and the holiday spirit all around must have been tough. “I’m glad you talked me into it,” Sam said pressing a kiss to Gabriel’s head. 

“I’m glad you let me,” Gabriel responded. 

The next few days passed like a whirlwind and before they knew it, it was Christmas eve. As they gathered around the giant tree in the center of town, waiting for it to light up, Gabriel slid in front of Sam and pulled his arms around his middle leaning back against him. Sam pulled him in tightly and leaned down to whisper, “I love you, Gabriel,” in his ear. 

Gabriel grinned brightly. “I love you too, my Sammy,” he whispered back. 

Once they got back to the hotel, they gathered around the tree with hot cocoa and gingerbread men that they had bought from a little corner bakery and Gabriel curled up next to Sam as he brought up gifts. “So I was thinking for Christmas I could get you a car.” He knew a protest was coming so he continued quickly. “I know how you feel about that kind of stuff, but it doesn’t have to be a fancy car. It doesn’t even have to be a new car if you don’t want, but I know you’ve been saving up for one and I want to help.”

“Cars are expensive, Gabriel.”

“I know, but consider it this way. If you were going to…or did, I don’t know…buy me a gift, what percentage of your available money would you have spent?” 

Sam blinked for a moment as he considered that. If he looked at it that way, he supposed it wasn’t really such a big thing. “Are you sure you’re not a lawyer?” he asked with a chuckle and Gabriel laughed aloud. 

“Is that a yes?” 

“Yes, that’s a yes. But not too extravagant and I want to help pick it,” Sam told him. 

“Of course. That’s why I brought it up instead of just springing one on you.”

Sam chewed his lip as he considered his own words carefully. He wasn’t really good about actually talking about this kind of stuff but he knew this one he needed to at least make an attempt. “I was thinking my Christmas present to you could be…um…me.” Gabriel tilted his head to look at Sam confused. He was here. What more could he mean? “I mean…um…a-all of me,” Sam said turning a bit red. 

“You mean…a-are you sure?” Gabriel stammered as he spun around to face him. Sam nodded shyly. “Jesus, Sam. And you thought a car was too much? I might as well be giving you a leggo brick,” he said in awe causing Sam to blush brightly and look down rubbing the back of his neck. “A-and this is what you really want? Not because you think it makes a good gift or because you feel like you should for any reason, but because it’s really what you want and you’re ready?” 

“Y-yeah. I’m a little scared, sure, but I…I’m ready. I want this,” Sam said as assuredly as he could. 

Gabriel smiled warmly and felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest as he stood and held his hand out for Sam. Sam reached out and took it and Gabriel helped him to his feet and led him back to Gabriel’s bedroom. “This is the most amazing gift I could ever get,” Gabriel whispered as he lowered Sam back onto the bed. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, Gabriel. Thank you for waiting for me,” Sam said with a shy smile. 

“You’re more than worth the wait,” Gabriel said before kissing him slow and deep, sliding on top of Sam and starting to unbutton his shirt with shaking hands. Gabriel wasn’t exactly a virgin, but he didn’t have a whole lot of experience in this either and with the trust that was being placed in his hands…the gift he was being given here…not to mention how much more this meant because of how he felt for Sam…he was just as scared and nervous as Sam was. 

Once Sam’s shirt was unbuttoned, Sam sat up a bit so that Gabriel could pull it off him before shucking his own shirt off to the side and leaned down kissing Sam again. He was going to take this slow if it killed him. It was Sam that took the next step to move things along, his hands shaking as bad as Gabriel’s as he moved to Gabriel’s pants. They had been this far before, but it was different now. This time they weren’t stopping and they were both keenly aware of that fact. This time, instead of just pulling Gabriel’s dick out, he started sliding Gabriel’s pants down and Gabriel’s breathing sped up.

Gabriel kicked his pants off and started kissing and licking his way down Sam’s neck and on to his chest before moving his hands to Sam’s pants. He had no idea how he managed to get them undone he was trembling so much but he did and when Sam lifted his hips for Gabriel to slide them off, Gabriel’s breath hitched and he was having trouble starting it up again. He opened the lube that he had grabbed on the way in here and started slicking his fingers up as his lips and tongue trailed down Sam’s stomach and as he took Sam’s leaking cock in his mouth, he pressed one finger lightly against Sam’s hole, giving him a chance to stop him before pressing in slowly, moaning at the tight heat surrounding him. 

Gabriel felt around for a minute before he managed to find the pleasure button, and Sam was arching up off bed with a keening moan as his hand tightened in Gabriel’s hair. Gabriel moved his finger in and out slowly, paying liberal attention to the sweet spot, but trying to keep Sam away from the edge. He desperately wanted to be inside Sam when he came. Once Sam was relaxed enough that his finger was moving comfortably he added a second, scissoring them open as Sam came undone. 

Sam couldn’t decide if he wanted to thrust up into Gabriel’s warm mouth or down on his fingers and he was just in full sensory overload. He’d never imagined it could be like this. A few minutes later he felt a slight burn as Gabriel added a third finger, but it was overshadowed by everything else he was feeling and then he was empty and Gabriel’s mouth wasn’t on his cock anymore and his nerves returned full force as he felt Gabriel’s length pressing against his hole. 

Gabriel leaned up and kissed him gently, rocking his hips forward just a little bit. Trying to get a little more pressure on his aching erection, but not breeching the barrier just yet. “If…if you want to…to keep going…you’re gonna have to…relax or it’s…gonna hurt,” Gabriel panted. “But if…if you wanna stop…just say the word.” Gabriel was biting back his whimpers as he shifted and pressed a little harder before backing off, never actually going in, but god he was dying here and Sam wasn’t speaking. “Sam…do you…wanna stop?” he asked as firmly as he could manage and please god don’t let him say yes. Don’t let him stop this because Gabriel wasn’t sure if he had the strength to stop now.

“N-no…k-keep going,” Sam managed to say as he forced himself to relax. When Gabriel felt him relaxing he started to press forward, tasting the blood on his lip from biting it so hard in an effort not to just ram into Sam and they were both panting as Gabriel slowly bottomed out. 

Once he was all the way in, he leaned down to kiss Sam slow and deep, forcing himself to stay still while Sam got used to the full feeling. “I love you, Sam,” he said breathlessly against Sam’s lips. 

“I love you too, Gabriel. Always,” Sam breathed out as he lifted his hips slightly and Gabriel started to move, just rocking his hips at first. 

“I…I’m not gonna…last long…this time,” he warned as he started a slow draw back and forth unable to really believe that they were actually here. That he was actually doing this. 

“M-me either,” Sam gasped out as Gabriel found the right angle to hit Sam’s prostate and Gabriel’s hand slid down Sam’s chest to wrap around his length as he started thrusting harder and faster. Forget not lasting long. This was about to be downright embarrassing. 

“Oh…god…Sam…c-cum for me…” he panted. He wanted to feel Sam cum and he wasn’t gonna be able to go much longer. “G-god…p-please,” he moaned as his motions turned frantic and just when he couldn’t hold on anymore, Sam cried out his name as he came and Gabriel slammed himself in deep as he spilled over, letting Sam’s orgasm milk him for everything he had before he slowly slid out and curled up to Sam’s side as they both tried to catch their breath. 

“T-that was…” Sam struggled for the right word, “perfect.”

“Yeah…it was...perfect,” Gabriel agreed.


	16. Chapter 16

Sam and Gabriel lay there for a good long while, cuddling together, hands mapping naked bodies, both wondering how they managed to get so lucky. It was a good long while before something dawned on Sam. “Should we have…um…used…you know…protection?” he asked nervously. 

“I’m sorry, Sam. I should have asked,” Gabriel said sheepishly. “I mean, I know you were a virgin and I haven’t been with anyone in over a year, and I had a full workup when we first started dating just to be safe, so there isn’t any NEED to, but if it makes you more comfortable…”

“No. It’s okay. As long as we don’t need to,” Sam told him. “I’m…not really sure how these things work with two guys,” he admitted. 

“That’s okay. We probably should have talked about it a little more first,” Gabriel acknowledged. 

“I know. I’m just…not really good at talking about that kind of stuff.”

“Neither am I,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “I don’t think anyone is. It’s kinda…awkward.”

“Yeah. It is,” Sam said burying his face in Gabriel’s hair. 

“But just so we’re clear…we’re not worrying about protection?” Gabriel asked uncomfortably. 

“No. I mean, as long as we’re good…it doesn’t really matter right?” 

“Right. Good.” Gabriel said kissing Sam deeply and it wasn’t long before they were both ready to go again. Gabriel slid on top of Sam, not breaking the kiss and they moaned as their erections rubbed together. “Sammy…I…I want to…feel you in me this time,” Gabriel gasped out. “Is…is that okay?” 

“God yes,” Sam moaned. 

Gabriel knew that Sam wouldn’t be comfortable taking the lead this time so he slicked up his fingers and reached around behind himself and started loosening himself up. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d bottomed, but he wanted to now, for Sam. He wanted Sam to know the feeling. He wanted to feel Sam’s cock filling him up. Wanted to feel Sam cum inside him. Once he was loose, he slicked up Sam’s cock and lined it up with his ass, lowering himself slowly as Sam let out a gasping moan. He would be hard pressed to say what felt better, this or having Gabriel inside him. Sam forced himself to stay still as Gabriel worked his way down, impaling himself on Sam’s large cock and when Gabriel had taken him all the way down and leaned down to kiss him, the shifting around him nearly had him blowing right then and there. “G-god…G-gabriel,” Sam moaned as his eyes rolled back in his head and he couldn’t help but press his hips up, deeper into the tight heat surrounding him. 

Gabriel shifted a little to find the right spot and then he was moving. Rocking his hips and sliding up and down on Sam’s hard cock. He could tell that Sam was having trouble holding on so he took Sam’s hand and moved it down to his cock. “T-touch me, Sammy,” he gasped as he rode him harder, Sam meeting him with every thrust. Before he knew it, Sam had flipped them over and they both whimpered as Sam’s cock slid out of Gabriel in the move, but Sam quickly lined himself back up and plunged in, lips and teeth and tongue mapping every inch of Gabriel’s neck and shoulders as he pounded into his lover while stroking his cock harder and faster. “Oh…fuck…yes…Sam!” Gabriel was throwing his hips up to meet every thrust, pulling Sam in deeper and deeper. “Fuck…so…so close…god…Sam…yes…Sam!” Gabriel cried out as he spilled over. 

Sam felt the clenching around him and the most incredible orgasm of his life was pulled from him before he collapsed breathlessly on top of Gabriel. After a few more minutes of kissing and cuddling, Sam said, “We should…probably go shower and head to bed.”

“Sam?” Gabriel asked worrying his lip nervously. “Will you…stay in here tonight?” he asked hopefully. He could see the indecision in Sam’s face. “Please? I…I want to wake up next to you.”

“Okay,” Sam agreed, Gabriel’s sincerity overriding his nerves and Gabriel grinned. 

“Good…so…separate showers or together?”

“I don’t think we’ll get much cleaning done if we shower together,” Sam said with a chuckle. 

“Good point. Maybe give it some time for the newness to wear off first,” Gabriel agreed and kissed Sam one more time before heading for one of the showers. The nice thing about these large suites was the multiple bathrooms, so Sam headed for the other shower. 

When Gabriel finished up, he could hear Sam’s shower still going so he slid into bed, still naked, hoping Sam was still planning to join him and sure enough, about five minutes later, Sam tentatively stepped in the door, wearing just a pair of sweatpants. “Come on to bed, Sam,” Gabriel said invitingly, noticing Sam’s hesitation. Sam slid in next to him, and Gabriel captured him in a deep kiss. 

As Sam’s hand ran down Gabriel’s side he noticed that Gabriel hadn’t put anything on. “You don’t…um…wear anything to bed?” 

“I don’t usually, but if it bothers you I can…”

“No. It’s okay. It’s just…I live in a dorm room and before that I always shared a room with my brother. It just caught me off guard is all,” Sam said with a sheepish shrug. 

“Okay…and you can sleep however you’re comfortable,” Gabriel assured him, wanting to make it clear that he wasn’t expecting Sam to be naked too. 

Sam considered it for a moment before realizing that it was probably silly to sleep with clothes on when the only person around was someone you were sleeping with so he got up and took off his pants and climbed back into bed as that last thought rolled around in his head. Someone he was sleeping with. He was sleeping with Gabriel. Literally and figuratively. He was still trying to wrap his head around it. 

Gabriel curled up to Sam’s side contentedly and pressed another kiss to his lips before he said, “I love you, Sam. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Gabriel. I love you too,” Sam said as he closed his eyes with a goofy grin on his face. 

The next morning Sam woke up surprised to find a weight on his chest and creaked his eyes open, grinning again when he saw Gabriel draped over him, head resting on Sam’s chest. He reached up a hand to run through Gabriel’s hair and the smaller man stirred and opened his eyes looking up at Sam. “Merry Christmas,” Sam said softly. 

“Mmm. Best Christmas ever,” Gabriel said sleepily as he stretched before pressing a kiss to Sam’s lips. They lounged in bed for a few minutes before getting up and they had good timing. They had just finished getting dressed when there was a knock at the door. Gabriel had arranged for room service to deliver their Christmas breakfast, complete with hot cocoa instead of coffee and they shared a leisurely meal during which they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Just little things, like reaching out to run a hand through each other’s hair, brushes of hands, small kisses. They were reveling in the new completeness of their relationship. Gabriel had no intention of letting their relationship become all about sex now that it was on the table so resisted the urge to take Sam back to the bedroom and suggested, “You wanna go take a walk?”

Sam quickly agreed and they bundled up and headed out, both of them falling even more in love with the city nearly abandoned as it was, and falling even more in love with each other. “This really is the perfect Christmas,” Sam said contentedly as they walked through it, running across a handful of groups of carolers still out on Christmas, mostly families this time, rather than the larger groups from before. “Are we doing the Christmas dinner thing the hotel is hosting?” Sam asked curiously. 

“I was hoping. Why? Did you have something else in mind?” Gabriel asked. 

“Nope. Was just going to suggest it if you weren’t planning on it,” Sam told him. 

“Good. Glad we’re on the same page,” Gabriel said bumping Sam with his shoulder. Sam chuckled and wrapped his arm around Gabriel pulling him close as they walked around just taking in the sights of Vienna at Christmas. 

“So what about new years. I know you said you wanted to hit a party somewhere, but did you have anything specific in mind?” Sam asked now that it was only a week away. 

“Well I have it narrowed down to my top five favorites and was gonna let you have final say,” Gabriel told him. 

“Okay, lay it on me. What are the top picks?” Sam asked with a chuckle. He had been mostly following Gabriel’s lead this trip since he actually knew the city and other than Palo Alto, he’d never even been outside of Kansas before. 

“Well there’s the New Year’s Eve ball at the Imperial Palace…” Sam scrunched up his nose at that and Gabriel laughed. “Okay so that’s a no go,” he guessed. “There’s the gala on the Majestic Imerator Train…”

Sam scrunched up his nose again. “You got any top picks that don’t involve formal dancing and stuff?” 

“Well there’s the revel at St. Steven’s Cathedral, or the inner city festival,” Gabriel told him knowing that his fifth pick also involved more formal dancing. He resolved to get Sam to dance with him one of these days, but he figured he’d made enough strides in getting Sam out of his shell on this trip. No need to throw too much at him all at once. 

“The festival sounds good,” Sam said, remembering the brochure he’d read on it. It seemed like a lot of fun. 

“The festival it is,” Gabriel said leaning up to kiss Sam’s cheek.


	17. Chapter 17

It was two exhausted and happy people who made their way back to the states. Once they landed and were headed back towards campus, Gabriel asked, “Stay with me tonight and head back to your dorm tomorrow?”

“When is everyone else supposed to be back?” Sam asked.   
“Matt and Lindy will be back tomorrow afternoon, Vicki probably the next morning. Jesse never comes back until the last second,” Gabriel told him trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice that they were back to worrying about being seen together. 

“Okay. Yeah. I can go back to the dorms tomorrow,” Sam agreed. He had gotten a lot more comfortable about being open with Gabriel on their trip, but he wasn’t quite ready to come out to their friends yet. Maybe soon. He was sure he would be ready by Gabe’s deadline at least and if not he would make himself ready. There was no way he was gonna risk losing Gabriel over something like that. 

It turned out that someone would find out anyway. A few weeks later, they were in bed and the clothes had already started coming off when there was a frantic pounding on Gabriel’s front door. Gabriel cursed and jumped out of bed, throwing his shirt back on and doing his pants back up as he ran for the door. “Gabe…man…I need your help,” Jesse said as he came in and then stopped when he caught sight of the discheveled man in front of him. “Dude…did I interrupt a date? Sorry about that.”

“No. It’s okay. What’s up?” Gabriel asked hastily trying to get rid of him before he noticed…

“Hey that’s Sam’s jacket. Hey Sam! Get some clothes on and come on out!” he called laughing. 

“What do you need, Jesse?” Gabriel asked impatiently. 

“Well me and this chick were hanging out at the pond after class,” he paused to nod at Sam who was standing in the doorway to Gabriel’s room looking like he was about to bolt, not that Jesse noticed the panic on his face. “And I kinda fell in. Bookbag and all. All my books, my notes, everything are ruined.”

“Okay. No problem. We’ll get you more books tomorrow and I’ll make copies of my notes,” Gabriel told him glancing over at Sam apologetically and worriedly. 

“Great. Thanks man,” Jesse said relieved before addressing the elephant in the room. “So you two huh? How come you didn’t tell anyone?” 

Gabriel walked over to Sam and slid his arm around him, rubbing his back soothingly now that the cat was out of the bag. Sam still wasn’t speaking so Gabriel took the reigns. “Sam’s from small town Kansas,” Gabriel said pointedly as though that should explain everything. 

Jesse winced. He’d been in enough small mid-western towns to know how narrow-minded they were. He just hadn’t made the connection. “Right. Gotcha. You should know, Sam, that nobody here gives a crap about that kind of stuff. Well I can’t say nobody. There are always assholes anywhere you go, but for the most part people here are pretty open-minded.” 

“No, I know…I just…”

“I got it. Mums the word. Just don’t make me keep it secret too long huh?” 

“We won’t,” Gabriel assured him. There was a little over a month still until their six month anniversary so it would either be out or over by then and Gabriel was trying his best not to consider the second option. It was only his promise to Sam that had him still continuing this charade now. He hadn’t considered how much more difficult it would be to go back to hiding after Vienna and the stress was wearing on him. Sam had noticed and was seriously considering saying something sooner rather than later.

It was only a week and a half later that Sam got the impetus he needed to spill the beans. The whole gang was doing their weekly dinner when Lindy got it into her head that they needed to fix Sam and Gabriel up with Valentines dates. “It’s less than a week away. If you don’t hurry there won’t be any dates available,” she said impatiently. None of them noticed Jesse’s grimace and that alone told both Gabriel and Sam that he hadn’t been behind this sudden interest in their dating life. 

“We’re not…” Gabriel was going to say they weren’t interested, but Sam cut him off. 

“We already have dates,” he said quickly. 

“Really!” Vicki said excited. “Who?” she asked with the air of someone who was about to get some good gossip. 

“Um…” Sam looked to Gabriel for help and Gabriel raised an eyebrow as if to ask permission. 

When Sam nodded slowly and more than a little nervously, Gabriel said, “Each other.”

Lindy squealed in glee. “That’s great! I knew you guys would make a great couple!” she said happily. “If I’d known Sam was gay I would have set you up forever ago!”

Gabriel reached over and threaded his fingers with Sam’s happily and to reassure him. Now that they were free to talk about it, Jesse couldn’t help but ask, “So how long have you two been seeing each other.”

The others had assumed that this was pretty new, and finally realized that Jesse had already known or he would have been the first in there making jokes and congratulating them. “How long have you known?” Matt asked. 

“Just a little over a week,” Jesse admitted. “I kinda found out on accident.”

“We’ve been together just over five months,” Gabriel said before an argument could start. 

“Five months?” Vicki asked in shock. 

Jesse’s eyes widened at that too. “You mean he made it past your mythical three month cut off?” 

“Three month cut off?” Sam asked looking at Gabriel curiously, nerves mostly soothed and what was left was overridden by his curiosity. 

Gabriel shrugged. “I can tell by the end of three months whether it’s actually going anywhere or not. No need to drag things out if there’s nothing there.” He suddenly felt like he was the one under the microscope and he didn’t particularly like it, but if it took the pressure off Sam he could deal. 

Sam felt like he was starting to understand Gabriel’s issues with the secret a little better. For him this was something serious and having to keep it from his friends must have been difficult, not to mention hiding from the rest of the world. Sam knew it was serious of course once ‘I love you’s’ had been exchanged, but it was kinda being thrown in his face now just how serious it was for Gabriel and the last of his nerves fled as he wrapped his arm around Gabriel and pulled him to his side, pressing a kiss to his temple. “I love you, Gabe,” he whispered, but apparently not soft enough as there was a loud ‘aww’ around the table and he blushed brightly. 

Gabriel chuckled and turned to kiss Sam lightly. “I love you too, Sammy,” he said cheerfully, so happy that he didn’t have to hide anymore that he was half tempted to break into dance. Sam could feel the weight lifting off his shoulders too that he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying. Gabriel pulled out all the stops for Valentine’s day since he could now take Sam out for a romantic night and he even managed to make his first foray into teaching Sam to dance and he expanded on that lesson on their six month anniversary the next month. 

Now that Sam had his own car, Gabriel didn’t chauffer him around so much any more, but whenever they went out, Gabriel usually drove, preferring his sleek Ferrari to Sam’s much more sedate five year old Civic. It ended up being a good thing since they only had two classes in the same building at the same time this semester and they weren’t even on the same days. On the flip side, Gabriel got to see Sam five days a week, including their continued Sunday nights instead of just three. Sam still stayed over most Sunday nights and even some Wednesday nights, staying in Gabriel’s room now instead of the spare room and the end of the year was coming up fast leaving Sam in a bit of a panic. 

He’d spent days going over charts and budgets and he had been resigned to picking up a second job over the summer to pay for an apartment, but the initial costs were way too much and he had classes right up until a few days before the dorms closed and there was no way he would be able to save up enough, even with what he had been saving for the car before Gabriel got him one, to move into an apartment, so he steeled himself to do something he really hated. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it right at least. He made up graphs and projections and contingency plans and gathered it all together before he went to Gabriel’s that Sunday. There was less than a month left of classes so he really had to get moving.


	18. Chapter 18

Sam was on edge when he walked into Gabriel’s that Sunday evening and Gabriel picked up on it right away. Sam sighed as he sat down and decided to get right to it. He hated asking anyone for help, but especially Gabriel, who was so generous and giving and he felt like he was taking advantage of him, but he didn’t really see another choice. He turned towards Gabriel and started to talk. “So you know my family cut me off, so I can’t exactly go home for the summer…no let me finish,” he stopped Gabriel from saying anything. “So I’ve been looking into apartments. I can pick up a second job for the summer and I have a few good prospects so I can cover rent and basic utilities and all that. The problem is the initial cost. The first month and security deposit which it seems is going to be higher since I have to have such a short lease, plus the hookup fees for all the utilities.” Sam pulled his first chart out of his bookbag. “I figure if I can borrow two thousand I can get all set up…I’m not done yet,” he again interrupted Gabriel before he could speak and Gabriel just sat back with a rather bemused look on his face as he fiddled with something in his pocket that Sam didn’t notice. “If I get the job I want, which is looking pretty promising right now, I can pay you back two hundred a month for the rest of the summer and then, assuming things stay static with my job at the bar, three hundred a month once school starts back up and I’m in the dorms. If I get one of my backup jobs it’ll only be a hundred a month for the summer, but I might be able to cut some corners and do a little more, but I’ll have to see once I’m in and have a better idea of what my budgets will look like. Either way I’ll have you paid back in less than a year. Unless of course you want to charge interest which of course you’re welcome to do. I’m flexible on that.”

“Sam!” Gabriel stopped him when he started pulling out more charts and graphs and projections unable to listen to any more. He always had to make everything so complicated. The rest of his friends just came up and said ‘hey can I borrow some money, I’ll pay you back when I can’ and Gabriel never asked any questions. Sam though with the charts and graphs and he knew he should have done this sooner before Sam worked himself into a frenzy but he kept chickening out, but it was now or never. “If you need money, I will happily lend you whatever you need and I have no intention of letting you cut corners or putting yourself in a bind to pay me back on some stupid schedule. But I have a counteroffer,” he said losing his confidence now that he was actually trying to say it. He bit his lip nervously as he pulled something out of his pocket and slid it over to Sam, unable to get the words out and hoping that it spoke for itself. 

“A key? That’s…you…you want me to stay here for the summer?” Sam asked. 

“For…for longer I hope,” Gabriel said trying to keep his breathing even as his heart tried to beat out of his chest. 

“You…you…you’re asking me to…to move in with you?” Sam asked wide-eyed. 

Gabriel nodded and then he couldn’t stop the words from coming out. He had two responses when he was nervous. No words or babbling. He didn’t have an in-between setting. “I love you, Sam, and we’ve been together for eight months now. It’ll be nine once school ends and that’s almost a year and I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now, that’s why I already had the key made, but I couldn’t get up the nerve and I’m sorry I made you go through all this with the charts and the graphs and the worry and yeah, I want you to move in with me. I want us to live together even after school starts back up. You wouldn’t have to stay in the dorms or worry about not having enough money and this place is closer to the bar so you won’t have to go so far to work and you wouldn’t have to get a second job over the summer and mmph.”

Gabriel’s babbling was cut off with a kiss from Sam and he melted into it happily. “Are all those things the real reason why you want me to live with you?” Sam asked once he had successfully shut Gabriel up. 

“No,” Gabriel said looking down. “I…I want you to live with me because I love you. Because I love the idea of waking up next to you every morning and having breakfast together and planning our days. I love the idea of arguing about stupid things like where to put the bread and when to do the laundry. I…I want…all of it.”

Sam kissed him again, more firmly and lovingly. “I want that too,” he whispered as they broke apart.

Gabriel closed his eyes and replayed those words over and over in his head as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that his dreams were coming true. “So that’s a yes?” he asked excitedly. 

“Yes, Gabe. That’s a yes,” Sam said laughing when Gabriel tackled him on the couch kissing him soundly and he didn’t care one whit that all of his careful graphs and charts went flying in every direction as his entire world was narrowed down to the little man on top of him peppering kisses all over his face and neck. Once they’d calmed down and Gabriel was curled up contentedly at Sam’s side, Sam felt the need to discuss the particulars. “I do intend on paying my way though. I’m not just going to live off you.”

Gabriel sighed. He had known Sam was going to insist on that and had his own compromise all planned. “Here’s the deal. When I moved in I paid the rent for four years in advance so there is no rent. Same with the building dues and the pool fees and the cleaning service and you’re not paying me back for any of that. The only thing I pay on a regular basis is the utilities and if you insist you can pay me half of that and groceries, but only after the school year starts up again. Your scholarship should give you a housing allowance for living off-campus and you can use that to cover your half. That is the absolute most I will accept from you so take it or leave it,” he said firmly leaving no room for argument. 

He wasn’t giving Sam much of a choice and Sam definitely wasn’t going to leave it. “I’ll take it with one minor change,” Sam told him and he waited until Gabriel quirked an eyebrow in question before he said, “I will chip in on groceries at least during the summer.”

Gabriel still considered it a win. He’d gotten far better than he’d expected so he just said, “Deal.”

“Good,” Sam said with a grin and now that everything was worked out, he picked up the key and put it on his keychain, Gabriel watching him with his own grin. 

Sam still mostly stayed at the dorms for the rest of the semester, but he did spend more nights than before at Gabriel’s and his stuff gradually found its way over little by little and as it arrived, Gabriel cheerfully cleared space for it. By the time the semester ended all they had left to move was the few small pieces of furniture Sam had picked up, and the last little bit of his clothes and books. The whole gang helped them and it took less than an hour to get everything moved into Gabe’s apartment and then they had a housewarming party of sorts. More like a ‘we live together now and we’re so happy about it we just want to celebrate party’ but housewarming was shorter and rolled off the tongue better despite the fact that Gabriel had been living there almost two years already so it wasn’t really a housewarming. Needless to say, their first night officially living together culminated in Matt and Lindy passed out in the guest room, Vicki on the couch and Jesse snoring away in the recliner and a rather big mess to clean up the next morning.


	19. Chapter 19

Sam and Gabriel found that they worked well living together. They had their spats and arguments as any couple would, but they were happy. So much so that Sam was feeling more than a little apprehensive about Gabriel’s upcoming graduation. He knew Gabriel would be going on to LA to live his dream of being an actor. He had given up his entire family and a huge fortune for that dream. His father had officially cut him off two years ago, not long after Sam moved in. Once his major was set in stone. He would have no more money coming after his trust fund and that was a lot for Gabriel to give up for his dream of being an actor. There was no way their relationship, no matter how serious, could or should hold him back from that. 

Gabriel was also thinking about his upcoming graduation, but his train of thought was very different and he had a ring burning a hole in his pocket. He knew this would either be the end of his relationship or the beginning of the rest of his life and he was terrified and exhilarated all at the same time. He considered waiting until graduation day and springing it on Sam then, but remembered what had happened a few years ago when he kept putting off asking Sam to move in with him and Sam had worked himself up into a frenzy trying to figure out what he was going to do so he decided to spare him that this time. He planned a nice romantic evening out where they had their first date after they ‘came out’ which happened to be their first Valentine date, making it all the better. After dinner he took Sam for a walk in the park and he stopped next to their favorite bench by the pond and got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and said, in a shaking voice, “Sam, will you marry me?” 

Sam opened and closed his mouth like a fish for a few minutes before he lost his footing and half sat, half fell on the bench next to him. He could tell that Gabriel wasn’t doing so well so he forced himself to find words. “I…I love you Gabriel and I…I would love to spend the rest of my life with you, but…but we can’t,” he said sadly closing his eyes and turning away. 

Gabriel blinked his tears away and took a few unsteady breaths as he forced himself to actually hear what Sam said beyond the ‘we can’t’ part that was currently taking over his brain. Once he had collected himself he took a deep breath and said, “Okay, why can’t we?” 

“You’re going off to LA after you graduate and I’m gonna be here at least another year and I want to go to law school so probably four more years. I can’t go to LA and being an actor is your dream. I…I can’t hold you back from that. You’ve given up everything for that dream. I…I won’t be the one that stands in the way,” Sam said as his own tears welled up in his eyes. 

“I gave up stuff that I didn’t care about, Sam. I care about you. I love you. My DREAM is to fall in love, have a family, live a life of warmth, and joy, and love, and laughter. Everything I was always denied. Being an actor is a career choice and it would be nice to have both, and I think we could work it out, but if I have to choose, Sam…I choose you. No contest. You are my DREAM. Being an actor is just a job. One that I would love yes, but not nearly as much as I love you,” Gabriel said earnestly. 

“H-How could we…work it out?” Sam asked actually getting his hopes up, now. He had no intention of making Gabriel choose if there was any way around it, but maybe…

“There is a lot of competition for actors. A ton of fruitless auditions and I’ll be lucky to get one or two jobs a year, at least the first few years. I figure I can go to LA for auditions, which probably won’t be more than once or twice a week, and then come home. There are a lot of options for transportation between here and LA. I looked it up. There are short flights every couple hours, trains every three hours, or I could even drive, but it is a rather long drive, but still. There are ways. Depending on how long the auditions take I might need to spend a night in LA from time to time, but I would still be able to be home with you most nights and when I do get jobs, we can play it by ear. I can stay there during the week and come home on the weekends or whatever depending on how long the job is. Worst case scenario there are a lot of theatre groups around here. I could stick around here and pad my resume a bit for a few more years and then we can go to LA once you’ve finished all the schooling you want. We can work it out, Sam. I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to make this work.”

“I…O-Okay. That…that works,” Sam said relieved. 

“So…? Please don’t make me ask again. I didn’t think I was gonna make it through the last time,” Gabriel joked. 

Sam gave a short chuckle as he said, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” Gabriel nearly tackled Sam off the bench as he kissed him deeply. Once they had celebrated out, Sam brought up something they needed to consider. “Maybe we should wait until I graduate though. I mean, if we get married, I’ll lose my financial aid…”

“Oh no. Uh-uh,” Gabriel said firmly. “I think I’ve been very patient with all your money hang-ups over the years, but I’m not gonna do that. Once we’re married, what’s mine is yours. Period. That’s how it’s supposed to be and that’s how it’s gonna be. We will get married and then WE will pay for your school. Not me. US. Got it?” 

“I don’t know…” Sam said hesitantly. 

“Sam, please. I don’t want money to ever be an issue with us. Yes, I have money and you don’t. I don’t care. I’ll give up every penny I have if that makes you feel better. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s nice to have, sure, but it’s not that important. Not nearly as important as you. As us. So please, just accept it,” Gabriel begged. 

“Yeah, okay. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours, as little as that may be,” Sam agreed reluctantly. 

“Sam, your love is worth more than all the money in the world. I wish you could see that,” Gabriel told him gently as he pulled him into another kiss. Sam looked a little better about the idea by the time they broke apart. “So I’m thinking we can do this by the end of the summer, that way it’ll be easier for all our friends to be there, but if that’s too soon we can shoot for the winter holidays or next summer. I’m not really one for big productions so just a small ceremony is fine so it shouldn’t take too long to plan and stuff. I know I don’t want my family there, but I don’t know if you wanna try and reach out an olive branch to yours and invite them. We can fly them out if money is an issue…”

“Whoa, slow down Gabe,” Sam said with a chuckle. “The end of the summer should work, but maybe leave it fluid so if we get too bogged down we can postpone to the winter holidays? I’m good with a small ceremony but it’s a definite no on inviting my family. I haven’t spoken to them in almost three years and you want my first communication with them to be ‘come to my gay wedding’? Yeah, not gonna happen. They would never accept me the way I am and I’m good with that now. I don’t need them. As long as I have you that’s all that matters.”

“You’ll always have me, Sammy. For the rest of our lives,” Gabriel said happily kissing him again. “My husband to be,” he added with a grin. 

“I like the sound of that,” Sam said with his own grin. 

“Good,” Gabriel said happily. “So I was thinking I would take your name. Try to distance myself from my family as much as possible.”

“I’m good with that,” Sam said wrapping his arm around Gabriel and pulling him to his side as they discussed the details. 

They managed to pull the wedding off by the end of summer and Sam let his scholarship lapse and didn’t even bother reapplying. Gabriel spent a couple days in LA every week doing auditions and got a few small jobs, mostly commercials over the course of the first year, so he was never away from Sam for more than a couple days at a time. Sam was accepted into Stanford Law School and graduated with honors before they moved to LA together. Gabriel tried to talk him into contract law so he could work with the rich and famous, but Sam wanted to help people and Gabriel couldn’t really argue with that. Sam did do some contract law, mostly for Gabriel as his personal lawyer, but for some of Gabriel’s friends too. 

A few years after Sam graduated, they decided to add onto their family. They wanted a child with both of their DNA but that wasn’t actually possible so they settled on the closest they could get. ‘Twins’ of a sort. Two surrogates, implanted at the same time, one with each of their DNA. It didn’t end up working exactly according to plan because one was born almost a week before the other, but they didn’t care. They had a beautiful son and daughter and that’s all that mattered to them. Over the years, they added two more children in the same manner. Another set of ‘twins’ both girls this time. 

Gabriel never really hit super-stardom, but he ended up being a great actor anyway, mostly guest staring in shows, but had a few tv series where he was a supporting character for most if not all of the run and Sam had a successful law career so they never had to worry about money, and in fact, rarely even touched Gabriel’s trust fund after college, though they did do a little splurging from time to time and surrogates were pretty expensive. They decided to set each of their kids up with their own trust fund with the same deal Gabriel had. Ten percent while in college and the rest on graduation, but unlike Gabriel’s family, they truly didn’t care what their children did with their lives, as long as they were happy. They obviously didn’t get as much as Gabriel had, only three million each, but they wouldn’t be cut off after graduation either. Everything Sam and Gabriel had would be split between them when they were gone and they lived long happy lives, never missing the holes that were left by their old families.


End file.
